Wednesday

Wednesday's POV

We got back to school the day the ritual would be officiate.

According Xavier's research, that night there was a stellar event: the alignement of Saturn and the moon. Saturn was the latin name of Chronus, so it made sense the planet was involved. I had no idea about the moon but Xavier explained us that the egyptian god of time, so another alterego of Chronus, was also the god of the moon.

Despite his research, Xavier didn't find a way out of this situation and none of us came up with a plan that could save us from the walking-dead-night we were about to experience.

Well, tecnically I had a plan. Threw Thing to the face of the guy who was wearing the mask and let my animated-hand friend steal the amethyst and run. But, according to Enid, my plan was insensitive since it would make in danger a fried. When I tried to told her that Thing was already dead and just brought back to life by Grandma's magic, Thing got offended and hid in its drawer-bedroom whhile Enid cried about the fact that, if I could sacrifice Thing, I could sacrifice all of them, including her.

Having a girlfriend was always so... dramatic? I don't know, anyeay I never spoke about throwing Thing again.

The day passed by, between lessons and texts. Xavier and Ajax came back at the library, looking for a last minute solution in a book they might didn't read yet.

I didn't think it was possible, considering how muche time they've spent in the library lately.

Tamara went back in her room after saying: - If they wanna bring someone else from the afterlife, so? I'm gonna have more un-dead friends.

Enid got back in our room while I called Tyler, who skipped school to go at the museum, bringing Thing with him. His - desperate - plan was to use Thing to steal the mask.

- So? Did your plan work? - I asked, doubtful at the phone.

- No - he replied - when we arrived the mask wasn't in its case. The guardian told me... Us... Sorry, Thing. The mask is being restored. I guess the bad guys already have it.

That was a bad news. I ended the phone call, after telling Tyler where we would meet that night, so we can go back in the basement all together.

I walked through the corridors towards my room. But, like my day wasn't already weird, I heard a sound coming from behind the door. Notes. Music.

I opened the door as slowly as I could, trying not to make it squeak.

I looked at Enid's back. Her hands were flying over the keys of the piano.

I didn't even know we had a piano! Till that day, it was covered by tons of her clothes that, despite Thing's organization, kept ending everywere. I remember Enid told me about her piano skills but, until today, I never saw her or listened her to play.

It was, actually, really hard to believe that someone so full of energy like Enid could sit at a piano. I've always thought of her more like a sporty person or a dancing person. But, here she was. Playing R.I.P. to my youth by the Neighboourhood, still unaware of my presence.

I closed the door behind me. The Click was enough to wake up Enid from her musical trance. She turned to me, one hand still on the keybord.

- Hey - she said, in her soft voice. The one she used when it was just me and her, alone, together in the bedroom, talking about everything and nothing. I realized how much I loved that voice just in that moment. It was my voice. The one she used just with me. That thought made me feel special.

- Hey - I replied. - I never heard you play - I said, moving towards my bed.

- I need to be in the right mood. A melancholy mood - she said, her fingers pressing chords on the piano.

I kneeled and took out my cello's case. I didn't played it as much as I wanted. The first weeks it helped passing the time but then, between the mystery and Enid, I stopped practicing.

I took a sit next to Enid, while she looked at me harmonizing my cello.

- Are you about to ask me to play a duet? - she asked me, with a smile.

- Aren't we already a duet? - I replied, smiling as well.

She chuckled. - You're right. - Her hands were back on the piano. - What do you wanna play then?

- You get to choose - I said.

- Mmmm... Let me think - she said, her gloomy eyes moving left to right. Enid always did that when she was super excited about something or when she was thinking really deep about something. - Do you know my favorite song of BTS? - she asked.

- Black swan? - I asked back.

- Yes! - she said, super happy I remembered the title of that song. - Do you think you could play it?

- You made me listened that songs over 100 times. I think I learned korean, listening to it - I replied, arranging my fingers on my cello's strings.

- Alright, then - she said. - The orchestra version.

Then her hands started flying on the keybord again and the music filled the room.

I followed her example and got lost in the music, in the tension of the strings under my fingers, in the melody. Not only between the cello and the piano, that was a consequence of the harmony between me and Enid.

I remembered all the times my parents fenced in the living room. How they always blocked eachother's moves, like they knew what the other's next movement would be, like thay shared one only mind. I was experiencing that kind of connection. Right now. With Enid.

We kept playing for a while, interrupting just to decide the next song to cover. Everything was perfect. It was just me and her.

Till Tyler called me.

It was already dark outside and we were late for our meeting in the hall. Enid and I left the room together and met the others who were waiting for us at the stairs.

- Finally - Tyler said, climbing down the stairs.

The basement was the same. Still dark, dusty and full of spider weebs. The difference was that we explored every inch of that place in the last month. Now, we knew where to hide and how to run away, if necessary.

The hiding place found by Enid last time was our secret passage. We could hide in it and look at what was happening in the room from the gashes in the canvasse.

The room was empty when we hid. Nothing seemed different from the last time we were here.

- Did you find anything in your last check in the library? - Tyler whispered to Xavier and Ajax.

- Nothing to stop this - Ajax signed.

- But we found something else - Xavier added. - Beside the mask and the amethyst they need a descendants of Anubi bloodline. Which, apperently ended centuries ago. And there's another news. There's a timeline. The celestial event lasts for 7 minutes. 7 was a holy number for Egyptians. So, tecnically, we have a chance. More like a hope. If they don't complete the ritual in that seven minutes, the timeframe is gone. For the next 147 years - he explained.

- How long the entire ceremony takes? - I asked him.

- One hour and half - he replied. - The timeframe goes from 11.57 to 00.04. Those are the fatal minutes.

- Do you think they found the descendants of Anubi's bloodline? - Tamara asked.

- They wouldn't come so far, if they didn't - Tyler and I replied at the same moment. I looked up to him, standing against the wall, looking through the holes. He turned around to meet my gaze and smirk at me, like he always did. Then, his gaze moved to Enid, sat next to me. His smmirk went wider when his eyes met mine again. - I'm still waiting for your "thank you", black cat - he said, turning again at the inside of the room.

He knew.

- Thank you for what? - Xavier asked.

- I gave the black cat, her golden retriever girlfriend - he said, still looking at canvasse.

I would kill him. If the zombies actually will be part of our life, I would let them eat him while I gained time to run away.

- What? - Xavier asked, looking at me and Enid,

I will hung up Tyler upside town, I promised myself.

- You're couple? - Ajax asked, while Tamara just stared at us. Enid looked at me, trying to gain time cleaning her throat. She didn't know if I wanted to make it public, I realized.

- Yes - I said, grabbing her hand. - Problems? - I asked, death-staring at the others.

- Congratulations! - Xavier said, hugging Enid. Tamara and Ajax patted our shoulders while Tyler snorted: - Like it wasn't obvious you had a crush on eachother... Please, we were all rooting for you...

- You knew? - Enid asked them.

- Yeah... - Xavier sighed, seeming guilty.

- It was pretty obvious, actually - Tamara added.

- Sssssst! Someone's comeing - Tyler whispered and we all moved next to the wall.

A row of people got in the room form the same entrance they used last time. They were all wearing gray tunics, their faces hid in the hoods.

Then two black tunics enters, bringing each one a jewelry box. Behind them, someone was wearing a red tunic moved towards the altar, taken by a white tunic.

The two black tunic left the jewelry box on the altar, while the white-tunic-guy opened them and show the crowd what was inside them. One box, the red one, contained the amethyst; the other box, golden, contained the mask.

- Here we are, my children - the white tunic guy started talking. - Tonight is the night. The night when the order of the world will be turned upside down. Tonight, Anubi will take His place as the god of the afterlife, after taking possession of his offspring's body - He said, pointing at the red-tunic behind him.

-We waited so long for this moment, Children. You know what to do to prepare the ritual.

The grey tunics started moving and made a circle. They started singing a litany. Behind the canvasse, we exchanged an interrogative look. None of us ever heard whatever language they were speaking in. It wasn't latin, greek, deutch or any language we could possibly know.

I looked at my watch. It was 11.30. There were 27 minutes left before the timeframe. The litany kept going, filling the room and probably echoing in the corridors of the basement outside. The only reason werewolves and vampires couldn't her them with their advanced senses was 'cause of the thickness of the floor.

- Now my children - white tunic talked again, when the litany ended and the echo turned off. - It's timee to present you the descentant of our God, Anubi, bloodline.

He moved behind the red-tunic guy and took his hood off. Next to me, I heard Tyler breath out.

- Dad? - he whispered, looking at the figure next the altar.

Oh, shit. That's a plot twist. The insensitive voice in my brain said, sounding like Tyler.

Tyler's father was above 40, his hair were salt and pepper while his beard was completely white and cutted short, his eyes were brown, the same brown of Tyler's eyes. He didn't seem uncomfortable with all that eyes pointed on him.

Behind the door, Ajax and Tamara moved to grab Tyler and prevent him from doing anything stupid - like enter in a room where a cult of supernatural psychopaths was about to sacrifice his father to an Egyptian God. Ok, thinking about it, the situation was more absurde than I thought it could be. Enid grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I squeezed it back.

- Children - White-tunic catched our attention again - it's time to test this man bloodline.

A knife was now in his hands. Tyler's arms were uncovered on the altar and white-tunic proceed to cut them and make the man bleed on the altar.

- Now, if this man is truly an Anubi's descendant, his blood will gather at the centre of the altar - while saying this, the blood started moving, led by an unknown force, massing at the centre of the altar. Proving that Tyler's father was actually a demigod.

- Now, it's time - the white-tunic minister said, bandaging Tyler's father. It was 11.54. 3 minutes to the time frame.

- First, the mask of you ancestor - the minister said, passing the mask to Tyler's dad. He wore it.

- Then, the amethyst of Baccus - he took the amethyst from the red box and showed it to the crowd. 11.55. 2 minutes left.

- Least, but not last, the blood of our God - he said, dunking the amethyst in the puddle of blood at the centre of the altar and then putting it on the mask.

11.56.

Nothing.

Maybe we were saved. Maybe the world wouldn't turn upside down.

Outside, the crowd was silent. Not a single one of them was moving. Neithere we were, in our hiding place.

11.57.

Lightning.

It was like a second and we were all blind 'cause of the light. After blinking, we saw the room. The amethyst and the mask were shining. An image overlapped the man standing on the altar. A shadow with the body of a man and the head of a jackal.

- My God - the white-tunic guy uttered, falling on his knees. The crowd followed his example. Tyler's father was now possessed by the God of Death, Anubi, who was getting use to his new body stretching his arms.

- I feel good - the God said, his deep and rusty voice put on Tyler's dad's one. -It's time for me to take my place - The God said, looking around at the people on their knees in fornt of him.

00.00. Four minutes to go.

The God, looked at the painting we were hidden behind. His eyes were covered by the mask he was wearing but his head was turned in our direction.

We froze. He was a God. The possibilities he could see through walls were high. Maybe he was about to call us out.

00.01.

- My God Anubi - the minister said. The eyes of Anubi moved from us on him. It felt like a giant weight was taken off our body. - My God, you should open the gates of the afterlife - the minister stuttered, still looking at the floor in front of him.

00.02

- You're right my believer. It's time to make the rule of the new world - His arm stretched, pointing at the wall behind him. A hole started appearing. It was like a black hole, it went wider and wider, eating every brick on its way. Inch after inch the hole grew in front of us in seconds.

00.03

The hole was as big as a window. But something was wrong. Anubi's body - Tyler's dad body -was tense. Like he was putting too much effort in opening the gates.

- My Lord...? - the minister asked hesitant.

- This body... - Anubi started tensing up. - This body isn't the right one - he growled, his voice echoing through our body. - You messed up the ritua...AAHHHH!!!!

Then the shadow of the jackal disappeared. Tyler's dad's body fell on the ground while we had to stop Tyler himself from running in the room and revealing our presence. The crowd outside started screaming and shouting. The mask and the amethyst, now split, on the floor.

It was 00.04.

The world would be lead by Osiris for the next 147 years at least.

**************************************************************
The room slowly emptied.

The last two gray tunics took the mask and the amethyst and put them back in their boxes.

- Luckily, we didn't have to pay the magician or all of this would be a waste not only of time but also of money.

- We should know following that guy was stupid. I mean, have you ever seen his face? I don't but i'm pretty sure he is crazy.

- Completely crazy, no. I mean the god actually possessed the body of this man - he touched Tyler's dad's body with his shoe. Next to me, Xavier put a hand over Tyler's mouth to prevent him from screaming.

- But he was enough crazy to kill the magician 'cause he didn't want to pay him. And enough dumb to bring the wrong man at the ceremony - the other dude snorted out.

- Come on, let's leave this place - the gray man with the red box said, opening the passage.

- What about him? - the other one with the golden box asked, pointing at the body on the floor.

- We'll leave him here for now. Someone will take care of it later.

The two vanished in the darkness while the painting closed behind them like a door.

Tyler's dad's body was still on the floor, in the silent room. At that point, Tyler was being held as hostage by the grasp of Ajax and Tamara but they had no reason to stop him now.
He ran out the hiding place to his father, still immobile in the floor. His skin pale compared to the red tunic he was wearing.

-Dad? - Tyler whispered, putting a hand over his father's body. - He is cold - he told us, a scared look on his face.

-Tyler - Miss Weems was on the door, Thing on her shoulder. - What happened here?