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The Illusion of Secrecy	By : Khaleesi-Of-Dragons Category: S through Z > Thirteen Ghosts Views: 1994 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from 13 Ghosts and I make no profit from this story

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
I was regretting changing now, the short-shorts revealing too much of my legs to the cool air of the basement; my Doctor Who shirt, on the other hand, was just thick enough the keep me from completely freezing. Considering we had to go downstairs, I'd slipped on dark blue sneakers to match m shirt and make running easier. Dennis leads the way, holding his flashlight out in front of us so we could see where we were going. As we reached ground level, low muttering could be heard from behind familiar glass cubes. "Oh my God," I breathe in fear," he's added to it." The first, and last, time I came down here there were only two cubes, their signs belonging to the Torn Prince and the Bound Woman, but now all of them were here.
"Where'd you hide your money, old man," Dennis asks, looking around with the same apprehension as me. I chew my gum faster, a nervous habit I've never been able to kick. Dennis lurches forward as though someone had hit him from behind, gasping in pain. He drops his clipboard, holding onto the wall for support. "Oh shit." Ah, fuck—he's having one of his ghosts-close-by fits, which means I was right in assuming that Cyrus had moved the ghosts down here before he died. "What the hell was that?"
"You know what that was," I insist in a shaky voice, wanting nothing more than to grab his arm, but knowing that if I did he would just go into another fit. "Cyrus did the thing all of us told him not to and now we're down here with the bastards." He rushes over to the cubes, taking in the signs on the cubes in a panic.
"Oh no, oh, Cyrus..." I follow after him, already beginning to shake; the spells etched into the walls interfered with my telekinesis enough that I couldn't always make it work when I need it to—it scares me to think that the spells could keep me from helping Dennis and I survive down here should one of them break out somehow. We don't get very far before Dennis falls victim again, jerking and dropping the flashlight. I keep away, not daring to touch him and make things worse. One of his hands shoot up to cover his face, knocking his glasses of and accidentally stepping on them seconds later. "Ah!"
I lean against one of the cubes, waiting for Dennis to calm down only to have something bang against it and send me falling to the ground with a scream. With shaking hands I pull the special glasses out and slip them on, turning to see who scared me. Inside the cube is Ryan Kuhn, cackling madly and scratching at the glass with his sharp nails. My hand moves to my right ankle where I still bore the scars from those nails. "No," I shout, crying now and wishing I had never been adopted. "No, no, no!" I cover my ears with my hands to drown out the cackling, letting out a panicked scream when Dennis grabs one my arms despite everything and begins to sprint out of the basement. It's a miracle that he didn't whack my head on the stairs as he continued to drag me until we were in the library. Then he finally lets go, wincing from all that he'd had to see.
"What the hell did you do to her," Ben demands, yanking me away from Dennis and sitting me in one of the chairs, wrapping his overcoat around my shoulders.
Dennis waves him off, leaning against the table and saying," Arthur, w-we have to talk." It was hard for him to get the words out and catch his breath at the same time; I can understand, still shaking and whimpering with my knees drawn up to my chest, and Ben's hand placed protectively on my shoulder. Hot tears continue to trail down my cheeks, stinging my eyes.
"What is the deal with the breakers," Arthur asks in annoyance, looking to Ben for the answer. Ben shrugs his shoulders, looking as confused and irritated as Arthur with some anger mixed in.
"There's nothing wrong with the breakers. I'm not the power guy, my name is Dennis Rafkin."
"You're Dennis Rafkin," Ben interrupts, taking a step forward.
"Who's Dennis Rafkin," Arthur asks.
"My office warned me about this guy."
"Now this is gonna sound completely whacked, all right? But just—just stay with me. I used to hunt displaced spiritual energies with your Uncle." He moves anxiously, like if he stopped the ghosts down in the basement would grab him and turn him into one of them.
"I'm sorry?" Poor Arthur, I think to myself, do try and keep up.
"Uh, uh, P.K. Agents, Revenants...uh, uh, uh. Like wraiths, wraiths? Do you have any idea what I'm talking about?" Arthur chuckles nervously, looking to Ben and me for some help, but I wasn't moving unless I had to. Ben comes to his rescue, moving to stand behind his chair. "That's okay, that's okay, I'll do this the easy way. Ghosts, Arthur, I used to—I used to hunt ghosts with your Uncle Cyrus."
There's bit of an awkward pause before Arthur asks," Goats?"
"Ghosts! Ghosts, God damn it! Listen to me! Ghosts as in, uh, as in disgruntled spirits trapped on earth, ghosts. As in Halloween. Boo!"
"Ghosts, right, okay. I get it," Arthur chuckles," I get it, I get it. I'm scared." Ben joins him in laughing, but at the hurt look Dennis sends in their direction white hot anger shoots through me.
"Don't laugh at him, assholes," I snap, voice breaking a little from crying. "Dennis and I would love to explain in detail, but I won't do it in this fucking house. I want—I want to get out, to get as far away as I can from those monsters downstairs." I'm close to a panic attack, I can already feel my throat beginning to contract and shorten my breaths. "P-please, Ben, let's leave." Ben's never seen me like this before and it's obvious that he doesn't know how to respond, so he changes the subject back to Dennis and away from the problem in the basement.
"That's enough, Elizabeth," Ben states firmly, giving me a look that made me cringe back in my seat. "This guy has been harassing my office since your Uncle died, obviously he's gotten to Elizabeth. I see this all the time—some rich guy passes away and all the nuts come out! The next thing you know, he'll be claiming that Cyrus owed him money."
Dennis straightens up again, pointing at Ben and Arthur determinedly. "He did owe me money. He owed me a shitload of money! I'm gettin' my ass out of the big glass house! Grab your children, do the same!" As he turned to leave another fit hit him, making him double over. Obviously concerned, Arthur walks over to him and places a hand on his shoulder, sending Dennis to the ground. I run forward, pushing Arthur away and leaning over Dennis to whisper soothing nonsense and calm him down. It works slowly, he stops jerking around, and is able to relax. He'd almost gone into a full on seizure, but I'd moved Arthur just in time.
"We'll go get you some help, okay," Arthur says gently, his hand hovering over Dennis's back. "We're gonna get you some help."
"Don't," I say, grabbing Arthur's wrist before he can touch my friend again. "Touching him makes everything worse when he's not ready." After a couple of deep breaths, Dennis is able to sit up by himself, wiping some spit off his chin.
"How's your head?"
"Not good," Dennis answers, rubbing at it. "Where's the suit?" I follow his gaze around the room, but Ben had disappeared.
"Fucking idiot," I growl, getting up and sprinting towards the basement. I knew he had gone down there for the simple reason that he knew where Cyrus hid his money and the only place I wasn't allowed to be in, in this whole house, is the basement. "Ben! Where are you, shithead?!" I continue sprinting through the dizzying maze of halls that run under the main floor, listening for any sign that Ben was close by. "Ben!" The walls begin to shift suddenly, putting my nerves on edge. They've never done this before. Oh God, don't let me get lost down here with these things!" The next corner I round finds me facing the back of the Angry Princess and coming to a sudden halt, my feet sliding out from under me. She turns to look at me over her shoulder, flickering in and out. I hold out a hand, palm facing towards her and focus with the last of my strength.
The last thing I see is the ghost being flung sideways and Ben sprinting towards me before I lost consciousness.

When I open my eyes again, Ben has me slung over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes, following after Arthur, Maggie, Kathy, and Dennis. "The hell is going on," I murmur, voice rough and eyes still half-closed. The group comes to a stop so that Ben can put me back on my feet, keeping one arm around my waist so I don't fall face first to the ground and knock myself out again. "Why are we still here?" Panic was beginning to set in again as I recall the Angry Princess looking at me.
"The house has sealed itself up," Dennis answers, glaring at Ben. "And it's your fuck-buddy's fault." Ben clenches his jaw, but says nothing as we continue to move through the halls. That's when I realize exactly where we are in the house, and it's not the part I'm comfortable in.
"No," I groan, trying to back away," no, no, I don't want to be down here. We have to get out of here!" Ben tightens his hold on me to keep me from bolting. "No, he's down here, he wants to hurt me!" I was screaming at this point, desperately trying to get away and failing. "Please, Ryan's gonna kill me, he's gonna—" I break down, sobbing and letting Ben pick me up and carry me. "Please," I whimper, voice barely heard.
"Hold on." Arthur comes to a stop, making everyone else follow suit. "Hold on, listen to me. This is gonna take forever, this place is just too big." He pauses to look around before continuing. "Okay, Kathy and I will head up this way. You and Maggie check down there, and you two go that way." I cling tighter to Ben's neck, afraid that Ryan might be out. He was known to rape woman and torture them afterward; I don't want him to get me. Ben nods, moving down the left corridor, while Kathy and Arthur go right, and Dennis and Maggie go straight.
"Are you alright, Libby," Ben asks, rounding a new corner and taking us farther away from the basement steps.
"N-no." Ben sighs, continuing to walk as I continue to shake and whimper. They're loose, we're all gonna die, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. "Let me walk." Ben looks down at me, unsure whether to let go of me or not. "I'm not getting lost in this place alone, so don't worry." He sets me on my feet again, once again holding me tightly so I don't fall. "What the hell did you do to piss of the house, anyway?"
"I grabbed the damn suitcase with the money in it, but I lost it when you passed out." It sounds just like Cyrus to rig a suitcase full of money to close the house and release the ghosts, that selfish bastard. I sniffle, moving to push up my glasses out of instinct only to find them missing. That's freaking great, now I can't even see if there's a ghost nearby. Ben had his on, so I guess that's a plus. At least one of us will now when we need to haul ass in the other direction. It's quiet for a few minutes as we walked, Ben having already explained what we were doing down here. Worry gnawed at me, worry that Bobby might be dead or locked in a cube. God, if something happened to that little boy I'll never be able to forgive myself. I would have walked right into a ghost if Ben hadn't grabbed my arm and pulled me back, jerking me out of my thoughts. With wide eyes, I look around for any hint at which one it might be. "Move back slowly," Ben instructs in a low voice. I do as he says, my shaking getting worse. I get move the damn thing if I can't see it!
"Which one?"
"Jackal." That one word had me ready to pass out again, my breathing picking up and sending me closer to hyperventilation. "Keep moving, Libby, he won't do anything if he doesn't notice—" Ben's eyes grow wide as he turns and jerks me along with him in a desperate run. "Move!" I can hear Ryan's crazed laugh as he runs after us, and then I'm on the ground and his nails are raking down my side, tearing my shirt and flesh. "Fuck!" Ben grabs one of my arms, beginning to pull me along with the Jackal after him.
I scream out in pain, feeling the warm blood seeping into my shirt, leaving a trail behind us. Ryan cackles again, one hand groping my breast and ripping my shirt even worse. "Get off of me!" The walls begin to shake as my panic rises, the lights hanging above our heads swaying back and forth. "GET OFF!" And then he was gone and a loud bang was heard behind us from Ryan's impact into the glass. Ben doesn't pause to help me up, just continuing to drag me. I let him, in too much pain to really put up much of a struggle. "Go faster!" Ben obliges, nearly falling on the slick glass as he speed up. "We have to get upstairs, they can't get upstairs if the glass is in the right spot."
Ben's breathing was coming out louder and louder, he pauses long enough to drag me to my feet, and then we're both running up the stairs towards the first level of the house with Ryan right on our heels. I let out a shout of frustration, slamming the doors closed and watching as the white Latin turns golden for a second when Ryan collides with it. "Fuck me," gasps, his hands resting on his knees. It was calm again for a second as we caught our breath and I never knew until that moment how hard it was not to cry. Ben wraps his arms around me, both of us huddling across from the doors. "He's gone, the Jackal's gone and there's no way he can get past those spells." He sounds as though he's trying to reassure himself instead of me, but it helps me all the same. My breathing goes back to normal and I'm able to get back to rational thinking.
A pane of glass set in the floor a few paces away lifts up, a sparking flare placed next to it in the same instant that Maggie and Dennis rounded the corner, all of us screaming and thinking a ghost was attacking only to calm down a little bit later and realize that we're idiots. Kalina climbs up from the hole in the floor just as Dennis moves forward with an angry look on his face.
"What the hell are you doing here," he demands. He doesn't get an answer when Arthur starts yell up through the pane, desperately trying to climb his way up while holding Kalina's spell book. Dennis, Maggie, Kalina, and I move quickly to pull him up, a banging sound below making me jump and wonder which ghost had caught him. As if reading my mind Dennis mouths," The Hammer." That's fantastic, the big guy with a hammer for a hand is loose and out for blood. I grab the glasses off Dennis's face, slipping them on and looking through the hole at the pissed off black ghost below, spikes protruding from his head and his blacksmith hammer in bedded in the stump of his right wrist.
"Thanks for taking your time," Arthur snarls, breathing heavily. He has glasses on, too, and it looks like he finally believes Dennis and I. Kalina opens her book, flipping through the large book until she finds the page she's looking for halfway through.
"We're gonna make a left and then a right," she instructs.
"Where are we going," Dennis asks. The directions are familiar from this point, it's a room I used to spend most of my time studying.
"The library," I say, realizing how brilliant that was," the barrier spells surround it, there's no way the ghosts can get in!" Kalina nods, shutting her book, moving to lead the way with me right behind her and Dennis bringing up the rear. "Let's move, bitches!" My side and back is throbbing and burning at this point, gushing blood, but I don't stop, ignoring the pain as best I can. Ben moves to walks behind me, removing his coat and wrapping it tightly under my breasts and tying it to try and staunch the bleeding. "Thanks." He nods, frowning as he looks around us. A familiar snarl makes me spin around just in time to see Ryan throw Arthur against one of the walls, digging his nails repeatedly into Arthur's back.
"Kalina," Dennis shouts, taking his glasses back from me," give me the flare!" I fall back against the wall, watching Dennis throw the flare, and Ryan disappear the second before it reached him. "Get him, get him! Get up, Arthur, get up; we gotta go, no time for sitting around!" Ben and Dennis each have one of Arthur's arms on their shoulders, dragging him as our group started to sprint once more through the house towards the library. I spot my special glasses in Ben's coat pocket and pull them on, looking behind us in terror. Instead of seeing Ryan again, I spot the Pilgrimess, head and hands still bound in the stock she died in. Her white eyes land on us and she charge forward after us with a screech of rage. Inside the library, Dennis and Kalina slide the door shut just as the Pilgrimess slams into the glass. I jump backwards and the collapse to the ground with a sob, my side is killing me and my emotions are all over the damn place. "I hate this job," Dennis groans, resting his head against the glass door and leaving a blood smear.
"It doesn't seem to like you too much either," Kalina snaps, laying her book on the table," I wonder why." He tosses his glasses on the table, looking like he didn't give a flying fuck.
"You got something to say, say it."
"Alright, let's start with this is all you God damned fault! If you hadn't caught them we wouldn't be running from them now, would we?" Dennis steps forward, pointing down at Arthur.
"It's his Uncle that built the damn house!"
"Yeah, but you helped him!" Her angry gaze lands on Ben and me. "And the two of you helped him, too!"
"Fuck off," I snarl, trying to stand again, but failing. "You should consider yourself lucky that I didn't drop a car on your head when I had the chance, it would've saved me a lot of bullshit!" She opens her mouth to reply, but I'm passed pissed off, I'm fucking furious. "Keep your mouth shut, you worthless bitch!" With narrowed eyes, I send her hurling backwards into a wall with enough force to shake the glass and give her a nasty head wound.
"Shut up all of you," Arthur commands weakly from his chair," cut them some slack, would you? What difference does it make?" Ben makes me lay down on my uninjured side, untying his coat and taking a cup of alcohol from Maggie, dumping half of it on my would and letting me down the other half once I'd stopped screaming. Dennis gives me a sympathetic look, but stays silent as Ben tends to me. He can't right now, he's not strong enough to put up his wall and I doubt he wants to see the things in my head. Maggie pours a little alcohol on Arthur's back, the older man letting out a hiss, but taking the pain better than I had.
"You didn't tell him, did you," Kalina asks, looking like she had the winning hand in high stakes poker.
"Oh God, w-what? Tell me what? What now?" Arthur stands up slowly, using the back of his chair in order to stay standing.
"About the fourth ghost?" Fourth ghost, what about her? I wasn't allowed to go to that one, Cyrus saying something about it being personal and making me stay the night with Ben.
"No," Dennis shakes his head," don't so this. I didn't tell him. Don't do this."
"He has a right to know!"
"What about the fourth ghost," Arthur asks, shaking and barely able to stand.
"Saint Luke's hospital—six months ago." The news seems to hit Arthur like a ton of bricks, but I still didn't understand why; Maggie covers her mouth with her hands, shaking her head back and forth with tears forming in her eyes.
"Are you saying my wife's spirit is trapped in this house," he asks, voice breaking.
"I didn't know you," Dennis says as an apology," I didn't know her. I didn't she had a husband." With a cry of rage, Arthur lunges forward and punches Dennis, sending them both to the ground.
"Why? In God's name, why?! Tell me, why her?"
Dennis flinches back from Arthur," I don't know why! Cyrus handpicked them all, including your wife. When I figured out who you were—God, I've been trying to help you. Libby had no idea about your wife, she wasn't even allowed to be there, she had to stay with Moss."
"You call this help?! She's right, this is all your God damn fault! Son of a bitch!" He fights to stand up again with Maggie's help.
"Arthur," Kalina starts," you can save her and your kids, too. Just listen to me and believe in me. This house is not a house, it is a machine. It is a complete and faithful recreation of Basileus' design." She sits down at the table, looking through her book again "According to this, there should be twelve earth-bound spirits trapped inside." She flips to a page with familiar marks on it, the marks of the twelve ghosts roaming the house. "See this? They represent the Black Zodiac, they represent the ghosts that Cyrus needed to catch—The firstborn son...The Torso...The Bound Woman...The Withered Lover, Jean..." Arthur strokes the page for a moment, lost in his own world, then he pulls away and allows Kalina to keep going. "The Torn Prince...The Angry Princess...The Pilgrimess...The Great Child and the Dire Mother...The Hammer...And, here, the sign of Hell's winter, the Jackal...And the Juggernaut. According to Basileus, the machine required the energy of these specific spirits in order to bring it to life. Once it engages, the spirits are released one by one. The house then draws them to its center. Each one adds its energy to the machine, powering it up."
"For what," Arthur asks, rubbing his temples as he tried to take in all the information at once.
"To open the Ocularis Infernum."
"The Ocularis," Maggie asks," what's that?" What's that, indeed.
"It's Latin," Arthur provides," Ocularis—the Eye of Hell?"
"The Eye of Hell." Maggie begins to pace back and forth, throwing her hands up in defeat. "I'm stuck in here in a glass house, with a bunch of crazy white people." So are the rest of us, lady, get used to it.
"Go on," Arthur urges Kalina.
She does as he says," In Hell, there is an eye that sees everything: the past and the future, the Heaven and Earth, the blessed and the damned. If knowledge is power, then the man who controls the Ocularis would be the most powerful man on earth..."
"Yep," I supply, beginning to feel a little woozy from the blood loss," that sounds like dear ole daddy, always on a power trip and too damn dumb to know when to come back to normal people standards. How many ghosts we dealin' with right now?"
"Eleven, and the house needs twelve." Well, I need some more alcohol, keep it coming, people! I must not have said it out loud like I meant to because Dennis begins to talk and I ain't got no whisky.
"No, Damon said something about thirteen, that there are thirteen ghosts."
"The thirteenth ghost is a fail-safe. In order to stop the process, the house needs a sacrifice of life instead of death. A willing human sacrifice, a sacrifice of a broken heart." She looks pointedly at Arthur while she talks, something Maggie takes offense of. "The only ghost to be created out of an act of pure love."
"You're the thirteenth ghost." And I'm freakin' thirsty, someone get me a bottle of alcohol and shut up so that I can get wasted and die in silence!
"The thirteenth spirit stands before the Eye at the final configuration; as the Eye opens, the spirit uses the power of life to essentially short-circuit the system."
"Uses the power of life how," Arthur asks.
"By leaping into the Eye."
"And Arthur's supposed to take this leap," Maggie asks, putting a protective hand on his shoulder. "No fucking way, lady. That's suicide, Arthur, I'm not gonna let you do that. You need to come up with something else 'cause that ain't working, no way."
"You two should get together." All eyes land on me and it takes me a little bit to realize why. "Oops, that one was supposed to be said in my noggin' not out here."
"Be quiet, Libby, and drink your whisky," Ben chuckles, handing me a glass of the amber liquid. I smile, gulping it down and ignoring the burn.
"Love is the most powerful energy, Arthur," Kalina continues, shooting a look in my direction. Why don't you jump then, Bitch, it ain't no secret that you love Cyrus. "In order for you to save your children, you'd have to trade your life for theirs." Any good parent would do that in a second if they had to. Hell, I'd do it for little Millie, and she ain't even my kid! Dennis pulls the book away from Kalina, looking as though he wanted to find something in there that proved the woman wrong, that Arthur wouldn't have to leave his children alone in the world.
"No, there's gotta be a better way," he says in a desperate tone. "I don't read Latin." Kalina stands up and dumps out her bag, explosives and the making of a homemade bomb falling out on the table.
"Well, we can try it the old fashioned way, my personal favorite. Nobody's gonna be here to brag about it afterwards. Whatever we decide, we gotta come up with a game plan soon 'cause time's running out."
"You gonna blow the place up," Maggie asks in disbelief.
"The last ghost is about to be released." Dennis leans on the table across from my cousin and I notice the cut on the side of his head has finally stopped bleeding.
"Look, I know why you feel like you have to do this, Arthur."
"Get away from me."
"No, scientists call it a linking, we linked earlier. I saw everything, about Jean...About you."
Shut up." Arthur stands again, walking away from Dennis. I watch the two men from my spot on the ground, Ben doing the same while refilling my glass from time to time. "I'm not gonna listen to this from you."
"Listen to me then," I say, slurring slightly," the dumb bitch wants you to commit suicide and I've done my homework—say no and we all die in a huge s'plosion, go through with jumping in and your kids might die anyway once the machine is done with the ghosts a releases them. Either way it's a lose-lose situation for all of us, so I intend on getting shit-faced and enjoying the rest of my night."
"All I can think about are my kids," he tells me without turning away from the glass to look at me. "I don't even know if they're alive." Dennis joins him at the glass, the look on his face scaring me.
"Then let's go out there and find out," he says. "One last time while there's still time—you and me.
Arthur finally turns around, but he has the same light in his eyes that Dennis does and my fear only intensifies as he addresses Kalina. "No matter what I decide to do or what happens to any of us, are you sure you can stop that machine?"
"I got enough explosives to blow us back to the fifteenth century," she answers with a smile, already working to build an explosive.
"Okay, how many flares do you have left?"
One, why?"
"We're going out again."
"You hear that, Benny," I ask with a giggle," we's gonna get our ass beaten by a bunch of ghosts. Don't that sound lovely?"
"Oh yeah, the sort of thing every man wants to happen to him," Ben mutters, taking my glass away and helping me to my feet, one of my arms around his shoulders and one of his around my waist. "Now, are you sober enough to run?"
"Does it matter if I am?" Ben sets me down on the table, moving to help Arthur remove one of the glass sheets that make up the walls.
"We got about ten minutes before the ectoplasmic shit hits the fan," Kalina informs us." Once Dennis had the end that Ben was supporting, he comes back over to me and picks me up, carrying me bridal style through the gap in the glass. "We'll go downstairs to try and buy you some more time. While Dennis and Arthur go left, the rest of our group head to the right down the hall towards the hole Kalina had left in the floor that leads to the basement. Kalina goes down first, dropping our last flare in case any ghosts try to come while she's distracted. Next is Maggie, then me, and then Ben. "Here, put these on." Kalina hands Maggie her own pair of glasses and then picks up the flare. "Come one, let's go. Come on!" Ben grumbles under his breath, helping me limp along after the women.
"If we live through this," I tell Ben," We are so having sex and getting high. Have you ever been high, because I haven't, but I'm fuckin' curious." Ben smiles down at me, nodding along and pretending to give half a shit. I look around us, noting that this was the place I'd been knocked unconscious. "Hey, I saved your ass here, Benny."
"Yes, you did, Libby," he nods, running his free hand through his disheveled hair. "And I promise that if we live through this, I'll marry you and we can have as much sex as you want, anywhere you want." I giggle at the prospect, unable to see my in a fluffy, white dress. When we catch up with Kalina and Maggie again, Kalina's opened a door to reveal a spacious room with a big ass machine smack dab in the middle of it. It looked to be made up of spinning blades and cogs. "Holy mother of God." I stare at the machine open-mouthed. I wonder how he fit that down here.
"Girl, hurry up," Maggie yells, holding the flare. I was about to say something when none other than Cyrus walks in, still in the bloody suit he died in. Maggie shrieks, holding the flare at him as she'd seen Kalina do, but it wasn't working this time. Cyrus continues to advance on her and I feel myself grow faint. There would only be one reason why that flare didn't work and that would be because the bastard's still alive and kicking. "Kalina, get over here! This flare shit ain't working!" Kalina smiles at Cyrus raising the book up and bringing it down hard on Maggie's head, knocking her unconscious.
"Well I'll be damned," I mutter, stumbling backwards against an equally surprised Ben.
Cyrus chuckles, Kalina throwing herself forward and kissing him, but he didn't let that display last long; he takes the book and pushes Kalina back into a chair. "Where is it," he asks, flipping to the back of the book. "Where is it? Where is it?!" He slams the book closed, advancing on the traitorous bitch. "Kalina?!"
"Why." she stutters nervously," why are yo so mad at me? I did everything you asked me to do."
"Kalina?"
"I killed Damon, I stole his spells..."
"Kalina?"
"...I even made sure your pathetic nephew didn't get himself killed."
"Kalina! Where are the spells?" He enunciates each word as though he's talking to a mentally deficient puppy, shoving the book into her arms. She hurriedly pulls the audio reel out of her bag, giving it to him. I shake my head, she's dumber than I thought she was and I thought she was pretty freakin' dumb to begin with.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" He's mad at everybody, dipshit.
"Of course not." With a click, another lever raises, the last one of twelve...The Juggernaut is loose. I suck in a sharp breath, seeing Joseph's mutilated body from the night we captured him, shaking my head and mumbling under my breath. Cyrus walks over to the machine, pushing Ben and I out of the way like we weren't there in the first place.
"So, what are we going to do?" Kalina gets up and follows after him like a lost little puppy. "Your nephew believes that sacrificing himself will save his kids, but he won't do it unless he's convinced his kids are jeopardy."
"Well, put them jeopardy."
"No," I shout, breaking away from Ben and moving towards Cyrus. "They're only kids, you disgusting bastard!" Cyrus glares, raising his cane and delivering a hard blow to my cheek. I fall back onto the ground with a grunt, fresh blood flowing down my face to join the blood soaking my T-shirt.
"Greatness requires sacrifice," he says," something you never quite figured out." I glare up at him, holding my cheek until he's pushed a couple of feet back. That's all I can muster right now, my body growing weaker from the strain. "Now, I have a job to do." He turns to face Kalina, giving her a gentle caress. "And so have you. Do it. Do it!" Kalina jumps into action, doing as Cyrus said while Ben pulled me off to the side so I wouldn't get myself into anymore trouble. "Feel free to have her, Ben," Cyrus smirks," that is, if you're not already bored with her. I know you're women don't tend to last long. Time to finish this." He presses a button and Latin spells are emitted through the house using speakers. "Fetch the book." Ben and I sit in our corner and watch as Cyrus and Kalina leave the room, Kalina getting halfway through a short corridor when Cyrus pulls a lever and the glass starts sliding in, squashing her.
I turn my gaze back to the large machine in front of me, wondering if Kalina had actually set the explosives or if that was just another lie. "We have to do something," I say aloud," anything, something!"
"Like what, Libby, if you haven't noticed, we're locked inside!" I smack Ben's shoulder, scooting over to Maggie and shaking her roughly until she wakes up.
"Come one, move your ass! We gotta do something or everyone is gonna die in about three minutes!" She shakes her head groggily, her dark eyes locking on the control panel of the machine and then cutting to me. "I'm a little stuck right now, but feel free to experiment." She rushes over to where the reels are spinning on the panel, pressing random buttons.
"Come on," she shouts, growing impatient with the Latin continues to play.
"The reels," Ben suggests, walking over to Maggie, picking one of the audio reels up and throwing it at the whirling blades of the machine. Maggie moves over to the levers next, pushing them down and pulling them back up to get a reaction. She gets just that when the metal cogs begin to grind against each other, tearing apart.
"Guys," I yell," get your asses over here now!" Ben and Maggie do as I say, crouching next to me on the ground. I use what's left of my energy to create a sort of bubble around us, to protect us from any debris that might go flying at us.

I cough when the shit storm has finished, watching as Maggie storms out and screaming that she was done. The house is done, too, blown to bits with every object inside blown apart with it except for a wooden box lodged in the ground a few feet away. "Is that what I think it is," I ask, looking at Ben.
He nods in wonder," Yeah, that's his liquor cabinet. Too bad we don't have the key." In shock, I reach into my bra and pull out the little silver key he had given me earlier, holding it up for him to see. "Hell, let's see what the old man has inside."
Once we managed to get the metal door to open, I pull out the first thing my hand comes into contact with; a little notepad with words and number scrawled inside. "That's his bank information." I point to the ID number in the lower left corner," But this ain't the one I know about." I reach in again and pull out a small suitcase filled to the bursting with hundred dollar bills. "I've got a golden ticket, babe." He chuckles, pulling out the real prize: a bottle of Vodka and a decanter of fine wine.
/*/It's Over—Six Months Later/*/
I stare at what used to be my house, wearing a new black dress featured at Hot Topic as a Maleficent dress and some calf high boots. Ben has both of his arms wrapped around my waist, his hands resting on the small bump that is my belly. Arthur gives us a small smile, one hand around his girl friend's waist and the other resting on Kathy's shoulder. Bobby stood in front of Ben and me, looking at the house with a mixture of disgust and relief. Dennis is still here somewhere, I know that well enough due to the fact that when we came to see what we could salvage this morning, Ben was smacked upside the head by something invisible. "There he is," Booby shouts, pointing towards a slope on the right side of the house where Dennis and I used to have lunch when Cyrus was out of town. Dennis waves at us, flickering in and out of sight before disappearing entirely.
"Come on," Ben says, tugging at my hand," we have a doctor's appointment to see how little Sawyer's doing." And that was the end of a night mare that lasted a year, an end to everything bad and the beginning of everything good.
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The Illusion of Secrecy