CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE  -  MUSIC, MAYHEM & MYSTERY

Meanwhile, Cassidy, still in her room is three quarters of the way through making a potion that will help Josie with her speech impediment that has been brought on by her seizures. Cassidy is looking through a book of healing potions and seeing the last ingredient she needs she turns around to the cabinet that she had destroyed earlier.   She puts her hand out and makes the last bit of the potion which is contained in a small leather pouch levitate through the air until it reaches her hand.  She opens the pouch and takes out a large pinch of the powder.  She sprinkles it into the cauldron.  She stands there, places one arm across her stomach and brings her other hand up to her face and says, “There is something missing!”  She looks back at the book and it says to combine all these elements into the full potion properly it needs a spark of electricity.  With that she steps back a bit, puts her hands behind her back and draws out both of her long bladed fighting daggers and strikes them together in order to channel a lightning bolt into the cauldron.  She sees a large cloud of smoke appear and says, “It is finally done!”

Back in the training room at New Atlantis the other guys have been training now for four hours.  Getting a little bored Natalia decides to unlock the Golum’s abilities.  She places her hand on the amulet and telepathically commands, “I now unlock your restraints!  It’s time for some payback”  She then instructs the Golums to each take the form of the person who is pissing them off the most at the moment. Just after Dara has struck the Golum he’s fighting against in the face, it turns back to face him and as it does so it suddenly takes the form of Malise, Dara’s sister.  Dara is shocked to see that and takes a step back, he then looks over at Natalia and says, “You sneaky bitch!!”  With that he attacks what now looks like his sister relentlessly.  He slams his double handed broad-sword up against a single handed broad-sword that his sister carries.  As for Newar and Natalia they are both confronted by their own inner demons – Newar is faced by Tansin and as for Natalia she is shocked more than anyone to see standing before her is herself.  She has let her guard down because she cannot understand why she is looking at her own reflection.  The Golum says, “How could you do this?” and at the same time strikes Natalia with the flat side of the war hammer.  She answers, “How could I do what?”  “How could you betray the ones that have trusted you the most?”  Suddenly Natalia realises what the Golum means.  She jumps up in the air brings the war hammer down, screaming, “It’s not my fault, I haven’t betrayed anyone!”  But no matter how much she fights against herself the truth is quite clear.  The Golum says to Natalia, “Drake would be so disappointed in you.”  With that she gets a sad look on her face and says, “I don’t want to do this any more.”  The Golum says, “Well, it’s too late for that you’re up to your neck in this shit.” It then proceeds to pound her into the ground. 

Natalia is using one of the war hammers, by holding it with both hands above her head, as a shield but no matter how she uses it she is being pounded into the ground more and more.  The guys hear Natalia crying and realise that there is something seriously wrong.

Across town at the Graveyard Nightclub Keira is there getting everything prepared and set up for Josie and her band mates to perform live and by video link over the internet.  She tells some of the other people in the club to pass the word around that Josie hopefully will be performing if she is up to it.  She explains that she is sick at the moment.

Back at the house, in Cassidy’s room, Cassidy is now pouring the potion into a thermos flask of hot water to make it look like a herbal tea.  She grabs her bag, the thermos, and heads downstairs where there is a car waiting for her.  As she hops in the driver says, “Good afternoon Miss Nevel, where would you like to go this afternoon?”  Cassidy instructs the driver to take her to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. 

Both Dara and Newar command their Golum’s to stop the one that is attacking Natalia.  In an instant they both charge but before they can even grab the other Golum that has assumed Natalia’s form, it senses them coming and turns and smashes them to pieces with one of it’s war hammers.  It then turns back and continues the attack on Natalia.  When the guys see this they realise that only in their true forms they will have a chance to stop this Golum’s rampage.  Immediately both Dara and Newar transform fully and where they stood two immortals in human form, now stands a lichen and a harlequin.

Without even hesitating Newar moves towards the Golum and at the same time becomes a full panther.  He jumps through the air latching on to one of the Golum’s hands which is raised ready to be brought down against Natalia.  As Newar is now hanging around Dara now moves swiftly against the Golum as well.  Using both his claws and his bone blades from his forearms he strikes at the Golum trying to tear it apart.  Newar swings his hind legs up and kicks and scratches with his claws.  He manages to dig them into the side of the Golum and he pushes with his back paws trying to tear the Golum in two.  Dara, looking down at Natalia, tells her to get the hell out of the way, but she is not listening.  She merely stares up at him with tears in her eyes. 

Because Dara is busy looking at Natalia he doesn’t see the Golum’s new arm come out of it’s back and it hits him in the chest which throws him into the air. Dara is in demon form and he uses his massive wings to remain in the air out of the reach of the Golum which has taken Natalia’s form.  Before he can yell out to Newar a hand suddenly appears around Newar’s neck and begins to squeeze.  A few seconds later the Golum has created a second torso out of it’s back in order to defend itself, while it is still pummelling the shit out of Natalia.  Dara yells at Natalia to snap out of it and to remember that the Golum only draws it’s strength from the person who has that hatred!  “Whatever your problem is, it can’t be that bad.” 

The Golum strikes at Natalia again but this time using both war hammers.  Natalia catches both of them and then tilts it to one side and brings her war hammer down and slams it into the floor and by doing this she pins the Golum’s war hammers to the ground so that it cannot move them.  She brings her other hand down and slaps it against the stone floor and as she does so ripples appear in the stone, as though it is water.  This firstly puts the Golum off balance which gives Dara time to try and free Newar from it’s grasp.  As Dara attacks he decides all bets are off and as he gets to the Golum’s arm he opens his mouth like a shark so that all the teeth are visible and combining his ability to bite through anything and to rapidly age things he tears through the Golum’s upper arm which causes it to let go of Newar.  As Newar hits the ground he reverts back first to his two legged form then to his human form.  Just after this both Newar and Dara hear a scraping like metal being dragged across stone.  Using the second part of her powers Natalia has dragged the sword through the stone to Dara’s hand.  Dara reaches out, takes hold of his sword and as he pulls it up and brings it over his head he transfers his demon’s fire to the blade and throws it through the air. 

The blade hits the Golum mid chest and transfers the demon’s fire inside causing the Golum to explode.  Left standing there is some of the Golum and it falls forward towards Natalia striking the ground.  Newar goes over and helps Natalia to her feet.  Natalia, looking at Dara says, “I think you enjoyed that a little too much?”  Dara, puts out his hands and shrugs his shoulders as if to say, “Well…..!!”  Natalia sees that the Golum’s head is still looking like her so she walks over to it and as she looks down, it looks up at her and says, “Like them, he will never forgive you.”  Natalia lifts her leg and smashes her foot into the Golum’s face and says, “I’m not a traitor!” 

Dara and Newar look at each other and as Dara re-takes his human form he asks Natalia, “What was that all about?”  She turns around and says very abruptly, “It was nothing, and it’s none of your business!” She walks away leaving Dara and Newar looking at each other wondering what the hell is going on.

Cassidy now walks out of the elevator at the floor where the Intensive Care Unit is located.  She walks up to the nurses station but finds no-one there and as she turns around she bumps into Nurse Richards.  She says, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”  Nurse Richards replies, “That’s okay, I suppose you’re here to see Miss Solomon?”  Cassidy answers, “Yes, if that’s okay, is she up to seeing anyone today?”  “Would you like to follow me and I’ll just go and ask?”  Nurse Richards walks into Josie’s room.  Josie is sitting up in the bed with her Apple iPro Laptop and she is just finishing sending an email to her father as well as a voice message.  She is about half way through looking at a video message from Curtis, William James, JJ and Dalroy.  They have been talking about a live performance over the web and they have told her that they will hook up with her and do the live performance.  They have asked her to send time and day details so they are ready.  Nurse Richards asks Josie if it’s alright for Cassidy to visit but is told that she is still not in the mood for anyone’s company.  Cassidy says, “That’s fine Josie, I’m just going to leave this herbal tea on the cupboard next to you.”  She goes on to say, “When you are ready to talk, just give me a call.”

Cassidy heads back to the elevators and after waiting for a few minutes the elevator doors finally open. As she is entering this elevator Kristen is just stepping out of one of the others and proceeds to walk over to Josie’s room.  As Cassidy turns around to face the front of the elevator and the doors are almost closed she senses an evil presence.  She shakes the feeling off and thinks to herself that it is just her imagination. 

On the other side of the world in the Dark Fortress Aziel who is just finishing off the left overs of the two immortals and the human female he had killed whilst in his lichen form.  At that moment one of the immortals that serves Kyah as well as Aziel and Tansin walks into the room.  Aziel looks up still with pieces stuck between his teeth and growls at the intrusion. The person says, “Sorry to disturb you, milord but I thought you would like to know that neither Kristen or Tansin has returned yet.”  Aziel stands up and reverts to his human form and says, “They were supposed to return hours ago!  Send two of the harlequins to retrieve them.”  “And if they do not wish to return?” Aziel states, “This is not a request, this is an order.”  “At once milord” and he leaves the room.

Kristen is still standing outside of Josie’s hospital room and while she is looking at Josie through the glass she sees her own reflection.  One side of  her face has the appearance of a rotting corpse and as she puts her hand up to cover it, she realises that her hand and arm looks the same.  A nurse happens to be walking past at that time and notices her arm first and as she says, “Are you alright?” Kristen heads for the elevator.  She gets in an elevator and as she is pressing the button the nurse catches sight of the side of her face and is taken aback a little.  The nurse runs towards the elevator, “Wait, we can help you!”  She is too late though because the doors of the elevator close and it begins the descent to the basement.  The nurse, worried, takes the next elevator and also goes to the basement.  As the nurse gets off in the basement she spots a hospital security guard and asks him, “Did you see a young lady get off the elevators a few moments before me?”  The security guard points and says he thinks he saw someone go through those doors.  The nurse asks him to go with her.  He asks, “What is going on?”  The nurse explains that the girl looked as though she was badly burnt. 

Together they walk through the doors and begin to search for the young girl.  The nurse calls out, “It’s alright, you don’t need to hide from us!”  The security guard gets a call on his radio that he is needed upstairs.  The nurse turns around and with a terrified look on her face says, “Don’t leave me here!”  The security guard apologises then walks back through the doors but leaves the nurse his torch.  The nurse is walking along using the torch to see if she can spot the young girl when all of a sudden the torch starts to fail.  She hits it several times against her hand and it starts to work again.  She gets a few more metres when suddenly the torch goes out all together.  Just as it does so she sees, out of the corner of her eye, what she believes to be the young woman.  As she approaches she can make out that there is a person there because of the security lights in the basement.  Suddenly there is an almighty rumbling sound and a massive flash of bright light and standing in front of what appears to be a large black hole is a person standing in a cloak.  The nurse stands there as two creatures resembling demons step through the hole into this world.  She lets out a huge gasp, screams and the two demons look up and see her.  She turns around and begins to run and slams into the dagger that Tansin is holding in her hand. 

Tansin smiles as the nurse slides down the blade further.  The girl puts her hands up to where the blade is and makes a gurgling sound.  Tansin looks at the two harlequins, “Why are you here?”  The harlequins reply, “We were sent here by Aziel under orders to bring you and Kristen back to the Dark Fortress.”  Tansin looks down at the young nurse and says to the harlequins, “Give me a few seconds, it would be such a shame to let this beautiful piece of meat go to waste.”  With that she grabs the girls head, pulls it to one side so that the girl can see Tansin’s face as she opens her mouth and the massive teeth come down.  Tansin rips into the girls throat causing the nurse to writhe and squirm as she sucks the very life out of her.

At the same time Kristen’s wounds which made her look like a rotting corpse also begin to heal as Tansin transfers some of the nurse’s life energy to her.  Kristen spots her reflection in a piece of shiny metal which is on the wall and says, “I’m beautiful again!”  After Tansin has finished feeding on the nurse, left stuck to her blade is now a Creaker, the rotting remains of a human.  Tansin says, “Before Kristen return with you we just have to make one stop.”  One of the harlequins asks, “Where is that?”  Kristen answers, “The Melbourne central cemetery.”  With that the harlequins re-open the dimensional gate.  The harlequins, Tansin and Kristen step through the gate and arrive in the cemetery. 

Just before they hide the body Tansin slices open her wrist with one of her long fingernails and pours a small amount of her blood into the corpses mouth.  Using the ability of a child of stone she opens the wall of a tomb and place the body in on top of one of the caskets already there then she seals the wall of the tomb once again.  They then return to the Dark Fortress. 

At this time Cassidy arrives at her nightclub, she proceeds upstairs.  When she walks in Keira is working on the stage preparing the sound system and instruments for the concert.  She spots Cassidy and hands the clipboard to one of the others on the stage and says, “I’ll be back in a minute.”  Cassidy asks, “How is everything coming along?”  “Everything is going smoothly so far.  How is Josie going?”  Cassidy, “She’s doing better but she still doesn’t want to talk to anyone.  I’ve left the potion there and have told Josie that it is a herbal tea.”

Back at the hospital, Josie is just having her dinner and as she is eating she glances at the bedside cupboard and sees the thermos flask and decides to try some of the herbal tea Cassidy made for her.  After she finishes her dinner and finishes off the herbal tea she finds herself very sleepy so she lays back into the pillows and falls fast asleep.  As the nurses come to check her regularly they can’t believe how deeply she is sleeping.  One of them comments, “She hasn’t had much sleep since she’s been here so this is very good.” 

Whilst Josie is sleeping she is having lots of dreams but one of these dreams turns into a nightmare which suddenly wakes her from her peaceful sleep.  She sits up quickly and gasps for breath. Normally the recurring nightmare is that of her mother being murdered in front of her, but this one turns out to be a horrifying dream of her father in agony.  Even though she is awake she just can’t shake the feeling about the evil presence she felt in the dream.  She looks at the clock and sees that it is 4.30am.  After a few seconds Josie gets out of bed and walks over to the window.  As she is standing there she begins to doubt herself and everything begins to play on her mind about what Detective Jade said.  She starts to think that it was her fault that her mother died but she has mixed feelings and is pissed off at her mother for not being there for her when she needs her most.  Josie, whilst still looking out the window says out loud, “You promised I’d never get sick like this again!!  Why aren’t you here when I need you the most, when I have to go through the most difficult thing I will ever have to face in what will now be my very short life?”

Josie leans forward and places her hand on the window and as she does that she doesn’t notice the reflection of her mother which suddenly appears in the window.  As the reflection appears it looks as though Arlia is placing her hand against Josie’s hand through the glass.  As her hand is still against the window she feels the warmth of her mother’s hand and then she hears her mother’s voice, “Josie……Josie!”  With hearing her mother’s voice Josie looks up and sees her mother’s reflection in the window, she turns instantly because she believes her mother is standing behind her, but when she turns around there is no-one there.  Thinking that she is dreaming she turns back to the window, yet she can still see her mother’s reflection, “Josie, it is me, you’re not dreaming, I told you I would always be with you.  I am so sorry you have to bear this burden alone, I would give anything to take this pain away from you if I could.”    Josie replies, “I’m going to miss out on everything other people take for granted.  I want to fall in love again, have more friends, get married, have children, none of this will matter to me now.  I’m never going to get the chance for myself and my band mates to have our music heard.”  Arlia says to Josie, “That is not true, you will have a chance to love again and people will love the music that you and your friends make…….”  One of the nurses enters Josie’s room and asks who she is talking to.  Josie turns around and starts to say, “I’m talking to my……” but as she turns back towards the window the reflection of her mother disappears.  She turns back towards the nurse and says, “Oh, I was just talking to myself.”  The nurse helps Josie back into bed.  Josie thinks to herself, “It had to have been a dream!”

Another nurse walks into Josie’s room with her breakfast tray and also sitting on the tray are some forms which the nurse needs Josie to sign.  The nurse asks Josie to sign the forms before she eats her breakfast and after a few minutes of waiting to sign the forms the nurse crosses her arms, taps her foot impatiently and huffing and puffing abruptly asks Josie, “Why is it taking you so long to read and sign these forms?”  Josie reluctantly speaks out and tells her and the other nurse that she cannot read.  The two nurses look at each other and start laughing and making jokes about what Josie has said.  Josie thinks to herself, “This is why I always keep it a secret and don’t tell anyone.”  What the two new nurses don’t realise is that Nurse Richards has been standing behind them for the past few seconds and she sees how embarrassed Josie is getting and she says, “What the HELL do you think you’re doing?  We do NOT treat patients who are under our care like this.”  The two nurses turn quickly and try to explain themselves. 

“Ohhhhh, we……..!!”  Nurse Richards says, "I don’t care what you two have to say, you have been able to get away with this shit where you were working before here but I won’t, and the hospital won't, tolerate this type of behaviour”.  After Nurse Richards tears strips off them she tells both of the nurses to get out of her sight.  Nurse Richards then apologises to Josie for the conduct of the two new nurses and then she offers to help Josie with the forms.  She stands with Josie, reads through the forms and explains what they mean.  After being helped to understand the forms Josie signs them and hands them back to Nurse Richards.

As Nurse Richards leaves the room she turns back and says, “Oh, by the way, you sound much better than you did the other day when they brought you in.  You still have a little way to go with your speech though”.  

Shortly after stepping through the dimensional gate where the harlequins and they had teleported from Tansin and Kristen go to find Aziel.  After walking throughout the castle, the Dark Fortress, they finally locate Aziel, he is in the dungeons.  Aziel asks bluntly, “Where have you been?”  Tansin replies, “We were busy with something important and besides it doesn’t matter where I’ve been, it’s none of your business where we’ve been!”  Aziel replies, “It is my business, I’m second in command and until the queen, ie; Kyah, has been freed from her tomb you will do exactly what I tell you to do without question.”  Aziel opens the cell door and says, “Look at the pitiful offerings we have for Kyah.  These are not enough to sustain her for very long.”   Aziel looks at Kristen and says, “Have you got something to say?”  Kristen, being submissive says, “No!” 

Aziel is called away because a message from Dr Odjit is just coming through.  After he has left the dungeons Tansin is standing there with the cell door still open and as she slams the cell door closed she looks at Kristen and says, “Aziel is getting to be too nosey for his own good.”  Kristen answers, “Do you think we should get rid of him as well as…….”  She cannot finish the sentence as Malise Lorcan, Dara’s sister, walks into the room, they know she is more loyal to Kyah and Aziel than she is to them. 

Aziel is in the control room talking to Dr Odjit, she is explaining that everything is in place in order to free Kyah, their Queen.  Dr Odjit explains, “There are only two things missing in order to do this.  I am still waiting on the vessels of the elders that contain most of the immortals blood.”  She goes on to tell Aziel that she has access to Mr Woolf’s blood.  “But the main thing is I have yet to find the control panel to de-activate the defences of the tomb.”  Aziel tells Dr Odjit that he has sent Malise with instructions for Tansin to acquire the remaining two immortals blood samples and as soon as they have been acquired they will be brought to the dig site and handed to her.

Keira has worked all night long to make sure that everything is properly prepared for the concert being held on the Friday night.  Keira has to go into the office at the nightclub and after she enters the office she finds Cassidy sound asleep on the corner couch and she is still holding a book.  Keira goes over to Cassidy and kneels down next to her and gently nudges her shoulder which causes Cassidy to wake.  Keira asks, “Have you been asleep here all night?”  Cassidy answers, “I just sat down to have a break and read a book and I must have dozed off.”  Keira replies, “Maybe you should go home and get some more sleep before Friday night so that you’re at your best just in case Josie is unable to perform.”  

As Cassidy stands up and walks over to her desk she agrees with Keira but she decides before leaving to get in contact with Jake Gamaliel, the captain of The Reaper.  Cassidy presses a small button on her desk and a monitor emerges which connects her directly to the Communications and Tactical Logistics Nerve Centre of New Atlantis.  One of the staff members asks Cassidy what her needs are.  She instructs them to put her through to The Reaper.  A few moments later she is talking to the First Mate who is second in command on board the ship.  She says hello to Cassidy and asks how she can be of assistance.  Cassidy goes on to explain that she needs to talk to Jake “He is on the bridge and I will relay your message right away.”  Cassidy gives the First Mate the message.

The First Mate is now on the bridge standing next to Jake and she relays the message as, “Cassidy needs you back in Melbourne at the club by early evening on Friday their time.”  Jake tells his First Mate to send a message back to say that he’s already 100 nautical miles away from New Atlantis and as soon as he arrives he will head directly to the club. 

Meanwhile Cassidy who is still standing in front of her desk looking at the monitor gets the message and then she closes down the monitor and decides to take the slow way home as she did to get to the club in the first place.  Keira returns to the floor of the nightclub and continues to get everything ready for the evening. 

While this is going on, back at the hospital, Josie is now out of bed and she has closed all the blinds.  She looks  down at the IV drip and rips it out of her hand, “Oh, shit!!!” she grabs her hand in pain because she didn’t realise it was going to hurt that much.  After doing that Josie goes ahead and gets dressed.  She has decided that she will not spend the last few months of her life laying in bed feeling sorry for herself and waiting for death to come, instead she’s going to live her life to the fullest and not take shit from anyone. 

Josie picks up her handbag and walks to the hospital ward door, she opens the blind and looks out into the corridor to see if everything is clear but there are still two nurses at the nurses station.  “Damn!  How am I going to get past them without getting caught?”  Just as she is about to close the blind she sees another nurse walk up to the nurse’s station and just after she does this the other two nurses leave and go down the hall.  Josie quickly opens the door and steps out into the corridor and quietly closes the door behind her.  Just at that time she sees one of the elevators opening but at the same time she can hear the nurses coming back.  Josie quickly hops into the elevator and stands there repeatedly hitting the button, “Come on, come on, close!!”  Just as the nurse gets to the nurses station and looks in the direction of the elevators the doors are closing.  After a very short ride Josie arrives on the ground floor.   She quickly hurries out to where the taxis are waiting, she jumps in the first one she finds and tells the driver to take her to the Melbourne University College apartments opposite the cemetery entrance. 

After arriving at the College Josie goes directly to her apartment, by now it is 9.30am and she decides to sit down and go through the music and select what she and her band-mates will play at the club Friday night.  At the same time she decides to get in contact with Curtis, William James, JJ and Dalroy to let them know exactly what time to be ready to perform. 

By this time Cassidy has also arrived home and just like Josie she decides to go through and choose the music and songs that she and her friends will play.  As she is doing this Gitan comes out of the kitchen with two coffee mugs, one with coffee in it for Cassidy and the other full of his daily blood.  After sitting there for five minutes discussing with Gitan what they should play both Dara and Newar enter the lounge-room and also enter the discussion about the music.  By the time they finish it is now an hour later and they have chosen the songs:  'Homecoming' and 'Hurricane Streets'.  After doing this Cassidy goes off to her room to decide what clothes she will wear on Friday night.  The guys also decide to choose their clothes as well and they also decide to go and have a short practice of the music that they are going to play at the club.  They do this in their own private recording studio in the house.

Back at Josie’s apartment she and her band mates have only decided on one song so far which is ‘Pressure’.  Dalroy suggests a few other songs but Josie is still unsure of the second song she wants to sing and asks if she can make up her mind later on at the club.  All the guys agree. 

Just before they finish up Curtis says that he has something important to tell them.  Josie says, “Can you tell me later, I need to get the stuff ready that I’m wearing tomorrow night.”  Curtis says, “That’s fine, I’ll talk to you later today.”  Josie turns her computer off.  The other guys are still on line and ask, “What’s so important that you have to tell us Curtis?”  Curtis goes on to tell the other guys that he has finally asked Genevieve to marry him.  William James is the first to congratulate Curtis, Dalroy and JJ also congratulate him.  Dalroy goes on to ask, “Have you set a date yet?”  Curtis answers, “No, but we are thinking about near the end of this year.”  

William James enquires of Curtis, “How is your father’s architect business going these days?”  “It’s fine, but I’d rather be doing something else as it’s a little boring!”  Dalroy interrupts and asks, “What time should we all meet up at my place in order to set up?”  JJ suggests, “It might be good to meet up two hours before the performance.”  Everyone agrees. 

Cassidy finally chooses a pair of blue denim jeans, a white satin top and a black leather jacket.  Josie on the other hand is having a much harder time choosing, she has gone through her entire wardrobe and finally settles on a very plain but elegant black dress.  To finish it off she wears a black ribbon tied like a choker around her neck which hangs down at the back, just like her mother Arlia used to. 

By the time they figure out what they're wearing, Cassidy is running late and Josie has decided to have a quiet night on the couch in front of the TV.  Cassidy, who is just coming out of her room bumps into Gitan, “Ohhh…..!” but before she gets to finish her sentence Gitan says sarcastically, “Are you finally ready, the rest of us have been waiting for hours?”  Cassidy replies to the sarcasm, “It’s alright for you guys, you just have to throw on a pair of nice jeans or trousers and a shirt or T-shirt and you’re ready in a matter of minutes.”  Gitan laughs, “Yeah, well it is true it always takes a female longer to get ready.”  They hear Dara and Newar yell out, “Come on, we’ll be late to see the movie at the cinema.”  “Alright, we’re coming!!”  They all head outside and get into the chauffer-driven car and then they leave to see the movie.  


The following evening Cassidy and the guys get ready and go into the study and they all pass through the mirror and arrive at the club.  Dara goes up to Keira and asks, “Is Jake here yet?”  “No, I haven’t seen him yet, he did say he would be here.” 

Josie is now waiting for a taxi at the side entrance near the college apartments.  The taxi finally shows up, she quickly jumps in and tells the driver to take her to The Graveyard Nightclub in the city. 

Jake Gamaleil has just arrived back in New Atlantis and he is running to get to the nearest dimensional gateway and as he rounds the corner he slams into Alexandra who is also on her way to the nightclub just like he is.  She asks, “Why are you in such a hurry?”  “Cassidy and the rest of the guys are about to perform and I’m not there.”  “Well, you’d better hurry up then,” and points in the direction of the nearest gate.  As Jake takes off running towards the gate he yells back at Alexandra, “Is Natalia coming to the club tonight or not?”  “I don’t know but I’ll try and make sure she’s there tonight.”  After Jake disappears through the gate Alexandra goes off to find Natalia. 

As Jake comes out the other side of the mirror into the office of the nightclub Josie is still sitting in the taxi, anxious to get to the nightclub but is stuck in traffic.

At the nightclub Cassidy and the rest of the guys are up on stage. Cassidy apologises to the audience saying, “Sorry that Josie Solomon, who was supposed to perform tonight, is ill in hospital…” there is an audible sigh of disappointment from the audience, and someone calls out, “We were so looking forward to hearing Josie and the band perform.”  Cassidy goes on to say,     “We are going to perform a few songs instead and I hope you like them.”  Just as she finishes talking Jake steps up onto the stage, still dressed in his pirate gear.  Newar points at him and then back at himself to indicate to Jake what he is wearing. Jake looks down and says out loud, “Oh shit, I’m still wearing all the muskets and swords!!”  He quickly takes it off and hands it to Keira who is standing next to the stage.

Cassidy takes the microphone and says, “The first song up is 'Homecoming'.”  As they start to perform some unwelcome guests enter the nightclub.  As they walk around they can hear this really cool music being played and sung and they decide that they’ll go and watch the band but as they attempt to enter the third floor they are prevented from doing so which pisses David and his friends off.  They begin to argue with the security guard.  David states, “No one prevents me from entering any part of any nightclub, do you know who I am?”  Just then two people enter, produce their invitations and go on up to the third floor and David asks, “Why are they allowed upstairs when you refuse to let us go up there?”  The female security guard steps forward and tells them outright, “The only way you get up there is if you’re a friend of the owners or if you have been invited.” 

David and his mates go over to the bar and as they are drinking one of his mates notices several invitations behind the bar and points this out to David. 

By now Josie has arrived at the nightclub and is standing in line waiting to get in to the club.  One of the staff members spots her and calls out to her, “Miss Solomon, you don’t need to stand in line please come on through.”  Josie steps out of the line and goes on into the nightclub. 

Back in New Atlantis Alexandra has just walked into the lab where Natalia is sitting at a computer console trying to figure out how to open the safe stones without causing herself injury.  Alexandra asks, “Have you had any success in figuring out how to open the safe stones yet?”  Frustrated, Natalia answers “No!  I’ve tried everything I know including getting those who are keepers of secrets to attempt to open them and it still hasn’t worked.”  Alexandra suggests, “Why don’t you have the night off and clear your head maybe you’ll have a better chance of figuring it out then.”  At that very moment The Elder appears, “She hasn’t got time to waste on having breaks, we need these open in order for our plans to succeed.”  Alexandra, “Well, I know that but after these are open everything will change.”  As she says that Alexandra goes over to switch the computer off and Natalia gets really angry with her and pushes her backwards to about the middle of the room.”  Natalia gets up and goes over to collect the safe stones and as she does this The Elder tells Alexandra to leave and she yells at both of them, “I’m not finished talking yet!! Everything is going to change – most of those we know including our closest friends will probably end up dead after we do this.  I also promised Jake Gamaleil that you’d be at the nightclub tonight.” 

Natalia blows off the comments made by Alexandra and says, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, if this works we will no longer have to serve two masters.”  Hearing this response really ticks Alexandra off, she pulls her leather jacket back and she begins to pull her daggers from their sheaths and one after the other she throws them towards Natalia.  Natalia can hear the daggers whistling through the air and she turns to see what is going on and the first dagger passes close to her head followed by the second on the other side of her head.  By the time Alexandra has finished throwing her daggers Natalia is screaming, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, are you insane?”  Natalia steps forward and to one side and left in the wall are the daggers which have made an outline of her.  Natalia looks back at Alexandra with a shocked and scared look on her face.  As The Elder asks, “Why are you doing this, we are all supposed to be on the same side?”  Alexandra promptly answers, “It was the only way to get my point across!”  The Elder suggests to Natalia that it might be a good idea to take the night off and go to the club with Alexandra to see her friends. 

As Josie is on the second floor heading to the third floor she notices that David and his friends are acting suspiciously because they have just stolen several invitations.  Josie walks up to the security officer and tells the female security officer that a group of people are acting suspiciously, and she points them out.  The security guard says, “Don’t worry about them, we had some trouble from them earlier, I guess that they are just pissed off that they can’t enter the third floor.  You can go on up.”  Moments later David and his friends walk back up to the security guard who refused them entry to the third floor of the nightclub.  The guard puts her hand out and says, “I told you last time, you can’t come up here.”  David clicks his fingers at one of his friends and they hand him the invitations they have stolen.  He takes them from his mate and says, “Oh, look what I just happened to remember that I had!”  “I’m very sorry sir, I didn’t know that you had been invited, you can go straight on up.  Please enjoy your night.”  David, under his breath, as he goes up the stairs, “You bitch!” 

Josie, having made her way through the crowd is now off to the side of the room.  There, standing in the shadows, Josie sees that her new friend Cassidy is up on the stage singing and the guys are rocking out the music to the song.  Whilst standing there Josie feels like she has heard that music before somewhere.  Lost in her thoughts she doesn’t see Alexandra come up behind her.  Alexandra gently taps Josie on the shoulder and Josie turns around and recognising who is tapping on her shoulder she says hello.  Alexandra says, “It’s great to see you here tonight.  We all heard that you were really sick and in hospital.”  Josie replies, “It wasn’t as bad as all that.”  Alexandra sees that Josie is a bit vague and not concentrating on the conversation.  Alexandra asks, “Is there something wrong?”  Josie, “No, I’m just trying to remember where I’ve heard this song before.” 

Natalia walks over to join them and introduces herself to Josie for the second time.  Josie sees her body and says, “Wow!”  Natalia asks as she looks down at her body, “What, have I spilt some wine on myself?”  Josie says, “No, not at all, I was just admiring your body and your abs.”  “And why is that?”  “Because it looks as if they have been chiselled out of stone!”  Josie then turns back and looks at Cassidy and the guys on the stage after she hears some particular lyrics, “Now I know where I’ve heard this song.”  Natalia asks, “Well, where have you heard it?”  Josie answers, “It’s one of the songs off the album done by The Spell Weavers.  Cassidy sounds so much like Nevel.”  Natalia and Alexandra look at each other and smile and laugh a little bit.  Josie looks curiously at them and asks, “What…what’s so funny?”  Alexandra goes on to say, “She should sound a lot like Nevel…”Natalia finishes the sentence, “That’s because she is Nevel and they are The Spell Weavers.”  Josie’s jaw drops and she gasps, “No way!” 

Just as she says that, the song finishes and Natalia and Alexandra walk over to the stage and motion to Josie to follow them.  Cassidy comes off the stage first and Natalia says to her, “That just rocked, I am so glad I did show up tonight.  Oh, by the way Josie is here.”  Cassidy goes up to Josie and says in a concerned voice, “Josie, what are you doing here, I thought you were still in the hospital?"  Josie replies, "They decided to let me go home."  Cassidy, "I’m very glad you’re here tonight.”  Josie asks, “Why didn’t you tell me you were Nevel, the lead singer of The Spell Weavers?”  Cassidy answers with a smile, “You never asked me what I did for a living.”

Josie asks, “How long have you been singing and how long have you all been performing professionally?”  Cassidy starts to say “For thous….. for four years!”  Josie asks another question, “How did you get a singing contract with the music company that you’re with?”  Cassidy answers, “You mean with Sony BMG?”  Keira comes up to Cassidy and reminds her that the audience is getting restless waiting for Josie and her friends to begin performing.  Cassidy says to Josie, “After you and your friends perform you can ask me all the questions you like.”  Josie replies, “I have to go and get my bag that has my Apple Notebook Pro in it.”  As she finishes saying this Cassidy goes over to the side of the stage with Keira to get things ready for Josie and her friends.  By this time David and his trouble-making friends have taken seats near where Josie’s bag was left. 

Alexandra and Natalia sit down in the private seats and get ready to watch Josie and her friends perform for the first time.  By this time Josie has just picked up her bag and has begun to walk back to the stage and as she passes the table where David and his friends are sitting.  As Josie walks past, David reaches out and grabs her on the ass, looks up and says, “Why don’t you come and sit here honey?”  Josie, with a shocked look on her face, glares down at him and as she says, “GET LOST YOU CREEP!!” she brings her hand down and wacks his hand away from her and then Josie continues on over to the stage. 

Natalia and Alexandra seeing what has happened, Natalia turns to Alexandra and asks, “What was that all about?”  Alexandra replies, “I have no idea!” 

After Josie slapped his hand away, David says, “No female ever refuses my advances!!  I’m going to make that bitch pay.”  Two of David’s friends tell him to get over himself an that he deserved exactly what he got.  David turns around and shouts at them, “Shut your cake-holes!”  One of the two say, “Chill out, you’re going to get us kicked out.”

Josie, now at the side of the stage is on her computer and talking to her friends and band mates just asking if they are ready.  They all answer at same time, “YES!!” 

While Josie is talking to her band mates and to Cassidy none of them see David get up and walk over to the other end of the stage where he messes around with a whole lot of the connections to the equipment.  While he is doing this he is thinking to himself, “This will teach you a lesson.”  He then goes back to his seat with a wicked grin on his face.  One of the two guys asks, “What have you done?”  David, “Just sit back and watch the fire-works.”

By this time Cassidy is up on stage, “I know you’ve all been waiting a while, but now here to perform for the first time is Josie and her band-mates.”  Cassidy turns and walks to the side of the stage and as she does so Josie walks to the centre of the stage and takes the microphone.”  As the band begins to play and just before Josie begins to sing both the sound from the microphone and the video feed from the monitors behind Josie suddenly drop out.  Cassidy asks Keira, “What’s the problem?”  Keira replies, “I have no idea, it was all working perfectly last night and this morning.”  A few seconds later all the power to the third floor suddenly goes out. 

Cassidy sends one of the bar staff downstairs to the storeroom to see if they can get the power back on.  When they manage to switch the power back on to the third floor there is a sudden overload through all the audio equipment and video monitors.  There is a loud explosion and sparks are flying everywhere and everyone close to the stage as well as Josie, who is still on stage, start ducking for cover.  Josie, who is right in the middle of it lets out a scream and she ducks down and covers her head.  After a few minutes when everything quietens down and the smoke dissipates, without being called over, Alexandra appears at the side of the stage to check on everyone, including Josie, to make sure that no-one has been hurt.

While she is doing this Natalia notices David and most of his friends are laughing hysterically, she plants her foot firmly on the floor which causes a shock wave and where they are sitting the seats to suddenly rise and fall, scaring the crap out of them.  Natalia, has a really wicked grin on her face when she observes their reaction. 

By this time Alexandra has finished checking on the staff and on Josie.  Keira comes back from checking the back of all the equipment and indicates to Cassidy that someone had earlier tampered with the equipment and it would take about an hour to switch over the audio systems.  “Unfortunately though, we don’t have any replacement video monitors.”  Josie comes over to the side of the stage where her computer is set up.  She tries to talk to her band members but finds that the computer is all completely blank and she can’t get it up and running again.  Josie turns to Cassidy and Alexandra who are standing watching what she is doing, “How am I going to tell them that we can’t perform for another hour until all the equipment has been changed?”  A few seconds later Josie’s mobile phone rings and it is Dalroy on the other end.  He asks Josie what happened and she explains to him that they are having technical difficulties. 

Cassidy asks Josie for her computer and walks over to where Natalia is sitting and asks her if she can take a look at it to see if she can save the files on the hard drive.  Natalia hooks Josie’s computer up to the computer that she has brought with her and as she is doing this she shows Cassidy that she has only figured out that the symbols have something to do with opening the safe stones.  As she is doing this her computer shows that all the files on Josie’s computer are still intact and it just indicates that the only damage is to the battery cell.  While Natalia is changing the battery over she hands Cassidy one of the safe stones.

While Cassidy is looking at the safe stones she can see all the past ancient languages such as cuneiform, hieroglyphics, picture grams, idiograms etc.  Cassidy enquires of Natalia, “So you know these symbols have something to do with unlocking them but you just haven’t figured them out yet?”  Natalia, “Yes, I’ve tried all different ways of lining them up, turning them and nothing happens.  I’m sure there is something missing.”

By now an hour is almost up since the power went out and Josie goes on to tell her band mates that they should be able to perform in a few minutes because it looks like they are putting the last cable together to connect the speakers.  Josie asks her band mates, “So, when are you all coming for a visit like you promised?”  Everything goes quiet for a minute on the phone and then from the background Curtis yells out, “It should be within the next month.”  JJ calls out, “It could be sooner!”  Keira comes over to tell Josie that everything is finally ready and to take her place on stage again.

As Josie walks back on to the stage the whole audience goes quiet in expectation of the music to come.  Just as she’s walking to the microphone her band-mates are well into the music of the first song, 'Pressure'. and Josie settles quickly into the lyrics.

Even Natalia stops what she is doing and looks over at the stage and says to Cassidy, “You said Josie was good, but you never said that they were this good!”   Cassidy comments, “I’ve only heard her sing and play a little on the guitar and also play the piano a few times.  I had no idea that, as a band, they were so good.”

The band gets to the end of the first song and everyone is cheering and clapping.  Just before they decide what the second song will be Josie is called over to the side of the stage by Keira who hands Josie her phone.  What no-one knows is that Josie has just received a call from her doctor who has just confirmed the results of the tests.  Josie goes very quiet and hands her phone back to Keira.  Keira asks Josie if she is alright and Josie replies, “Yes, everything is fine.”  Josie goes back to the microphone and says, “The next song we are going to perform is ‘Conspiracy’ I hope you like it.”

Josie and her band mates go on to rock out the song fantastically, to the enjoyment of the whole crowd.  Just after Josie gets off the stage  she talks to her band mates on the phone again thanking them for performing with her as a band even with all the complications they had at the start.  She tells them she will see them in about a months time.  Both Alexandra and Keira come up to Josie, they congratulated her on the song choices and they tell her that her friends really know how to rock out a tune.  Josie just smiles at both of them.  Keira sees Cassidy gesturing to her to send Josie over to the table where she and Natalia are.  As Josie makes her way through the crowd towards where Cassidy and Natalia are unfortunately for her she has to pass the table where David and his unpleasant friends are sitting. 

As Josie gets about half way past the table David reaches out and this time he grabs her for a second time on the bottom and begins to squeeze.  Josie turns, grabs David by the wrist to try and make him let go.  He refuses to do so.  Josie, already in a pretty pissed off mood because of the information the doctor gave her earlier on the phone, is not in the mood to tolerate shit from anyone.  Looking back and down at David, Josie, in no uncertain terms says, “If you don’t remove your hand from my ass it will be the last time you ever use it.”  David just looks up and laughs.  Josie brings her other hand over, grabs David by the head and slams his head into the table and the glass which is in front of him.  The glass shatters leaving half a broken jagged glass behind.  This causes David to instantly let go of Josie’s bottom.  This infuriates David for he believes that no woman has the right to turn his advances down.  He screams out at the top of his lungs, “YOU F>>>>>ING BITCH!!!”  This gets the attention of everyone on the third floor.

Everyone, including Cassidy and her friends, go to rush to Josie’s aid.  Natalia, who is now standing up tells Cassidy to hang on for a moment.  Cassidy turns back and says, “WHAT?”  “Hang on for a moment, let’s just see how Josie handles herself.”  Cassidy puts her hand on the acolyte amulet and telepathically tells everybody else in the room to hold their ground and not interfere for the moment. 

By now, David is ranting and raving and saying some of the most crude and insulting things he can think of to Josie.  Josie simply blows him off thinking to herself, “As if any of this is going to make me madder.”  Then David says the unspeakable and mouths off about Josie’s mother.  The annoyed look on Josie’s face disappears and the look she now shows David is the look that if he continues to say awful things about her mother she will kill him where he stands.  Josie takes several steps towards him and then for some reason decides not to do anything.  Josie turns and begins to walk away.  As she does so, David grabs the broken glass and moves towards Josie swinging the broken jagged glass at her. 

Both of the nicer guys yell out, “LOOK OUT!”  Josie turns around and as she does so she sees the broken glass coming towards her as he swings it backwards and forwards.  Josie pulls away, ducks and weaves, causing David to just miss her face.  This time Josie puts her arm up and blocks his arm, she brings her other arm forward and strikes him in the chest pushing him back about 5 feet. 

Cassidy, Natalia and their friends are all thinking the same thing, “Wow, did you see that, Josie has got some really wicked moves.” 

This doesn’t stop or even slow David down it simply fills him with more hatred and rage towards Josie.  He goes flying at her and takes another powerful swing and this time Josie using a double handed block on the outside of his upper arm and on the inside of his lower arm prevents him from striking again, but he continually keeps trying to get out of the block.  He tries to kick her so she brings her leg up to block it.  Shifting her hands and letting go of the arm for a few seconds she switches her hand positions and she wacks his arm very hard causing his arm to bend at the elbow which causes him to stab himself in the face and neck with the broken glass.  As he does so he twists the glass breaking the shards of glass off and leaves them in his neck and face.  Josie, looking at him with a wicked grin on her face, says to him, “So, have you finally got the point, I don’t like you?” 

David brings his hand up to his neck, he turns his head to look at the other guys who had been with him because he heard them laughing.  One of them, laughingly asks, “So, did you get the point!!”  David screams, “SHUT  YOUR F***ING MOUTH!!  Nodding his head to the other two arseholes they decide to get involved.  David puts his hand behind and under his jacket and begins to slide out a very large hunting knife.  As he is doing this the other two arseholes are also doing the same. 

What David doesn’t realise is the Captain of The Reaper, Jake Gamaleil has spotted the hilt of the large knife in his hand.  Jake calls to Keira for his weapons.  Keira grabbing his weapons, throws them to him as he runs and jumps off the stage.  As Jake jumps off the stage, grabbing his weapons in mid-air, he loses his solid form and becomes a ghost.  Passing through everyone else in his path he reaches Josie and David’s side in a matter of seconds.  As he draws one of the swords out with his left hand he re-takes his human form. 

This startles Josie a little bit because one minute he’s not there and the next he is.  As David brings his knife up to Josie’s throat and the other two pull out their knives, also looking for a fight,  Jake slides his cutlass up under David’s chin, while with his right hand he takes a double-barrelled musket from his chest belt and points it towards the other two who are also armed with knives.  He pulls both hammers back, showing that he means business. 

Meanwhile Cassidy, standing there watching what is unfolding, yells at the group, “I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!”  All the other immortals and humans part and let her through, and all of them have a distinctly wary look on their faces. 

Back near the stage Alexandra thinks out loud, “Now they’ve done it, they’ve gone and pissed her off!!”  Dara, Gitan and Newar, who are on the other side of the stage all turn their heads and look at Alexandra and nod their heads to confirm what she said is correct, “Yep, they’ve pissed Cassidy off alright!” 

Cassidy, now standing next to Josie, looks at David with a majorly pissed off look on her face.  She says to David, “Drop your weapon if you want to walk out of here alive!”  David’s reply is, “Up yours bitch, I’m not afraid of getting my throat slit, bring it on!”  Just at the moment of finishing his sentence he feels pressure between his legs.  Looking down he sees a blade protruding between his legs.  He looks over his shoulder and standing there behind him is Alexandra who quietly whispers in his ear, “You may not be afraid to die but I bet you’re afraid to lose this” and as she speaks she pulls sharply up on the hilt of the blade.  This causes David to rise quickly and painfully up onto his toes.

Cassidy says to him, “It still remains to be seen whether you walk out of here on your own two feet or whether you’re carried out on your back.  If you let Josie go I give you my word that you and your friends will not be harmed.  But if you do not agree to this then we will have to do this the hard way!”   David accepts what she says with one condition, that the two who have the knife & the sword, one to his throat and one to his crutch  be the first ones to back off.  Cassidy, looking at Jake and Alexandra, nods her head and they both slowly withdraw their weapons and back away from David. 

David, the type of person who never keeps his word, reaches out and grabs Josie, swings her around and puts the knife right up under her throat.  He says, “Did you really think I was going to do what I was told by such a gullible woman??”  This infuriates Cassidy.  By this time David is joined by his other two friends who are also packing knives.  Cassidy says to him, “This was a really good night but you had to go and f**k it up for everyone!”  David looks at her and says, “So what are you going to do about it, as long as I’ve got my knife to this bitches throat you won’t do a single thing!” 

By this time Dara, Newar, Gitan and Keira are now also standing around David.  Cassidy replies, “This is my nightclub and I want you three arseholes out of here now, you are not welcome here any longer.”  David replies sarcastically, “Yeah, you and what army?”   In the time it takes for him to take his next breath he realises he is in really deep shit because all those who are standing around him have now revealed how heavily armed and willing they are to use the pistols, war hammers, swords, muskets, daggers etc. which they have drawn, indicating ‘this army’.  David’s two henchmen look around frantically for a way out, when none is obvious, they look at each other and they both say at the same time, “We are just so f**kin’ dead!!”  With that they both drop their knives and put their hands up, “Come on guys, we didn’t want this, we...we, were just joking.” 

David looks at both of them and sneers, “You pussies!!”  After a few seconds though he changes his mind very quickly when Keira pulls out one of her handguns,  she puts it to David’s head, “For the last time, let Josie go or like Cassidy said earlier, you won’t leave this nightclub alive.  The difference between you and us is that we are willing to die for and kill for our friends who may be in trouble.”  With that Keira actually pulls the trigger and all you hear is a ‘clunk’ as she still has the gun on safety. 

With that David both drops his knife and wets his pants as Keira quickly takes Josie’s hand and pulls her aside.  At the same time everyone laughs at David as they put away all their weapons.  Both Cassidy and Keira take Josie over to the table where Natalia is still sitting trying to figure out the safe stones.  Josie looks back and says, “But what about them?”  Natalia replies, “Jake and the guys are now taking them downstairs, they won’t bother you anymore.”  Newar says to the other two, who were not involved, “I’m sorry but you will have to leave as well.”

Dara, Gitan and Jake are at the front door, manhandling David and his men and shoving them out they stumble along as they reach the end of the line of people waiting to go into the club.  The guys give them one more hard shove for good measure. 

David stumbles and falls over and his two friends help him up and he brushes them aside saying, “I don’t need your help.”  David yells some obscenities and screams, “THIS IS NOT OVER!”  As he turns to leave he finds himself face to face with Alexandra, she whispers loudly in his ear, “If you ever come near Josie again the only thing you will have to decide is whether or not you are going to be a eat in or a take away meal.”  As she pulls back from his ear she gives him a quick glimpse of what she really is, fangs down, fangs up, red eyes.   David, startled yells, “Oh shit, let’s get out of here!!”

After they’ve run off Alexandra turns and walks back to the nightclub and standing there cheering her on are Dara, Gitan, Jake and by now Newar.  As she gets to Gitan, he puts his hand out and she slaps it, then she puts her hand out and he slaps hers.  “You’re just sooooo wicked!”  Then they all head back into the nighclub. 

Meanwhile back on the third floor Josie has already started to ask Cassidy a whole lot of questions on what it’s like to be signed to a record label and to be out on the road performing live. Cassidy answers Josie’s questions, she says, “It’s an absolute ball to be signed and to perform live but it’s also a lot of hard work with all the interviews, photo shoots, public appearances, you don’t get a lot of time to yourself.” 

Cassidy goes on to ask Josie some questions starting with, “You performed exceptionally well tonight so have you and your friends ever thought about getting signed to a record label yourselves?”  Josie, answering the question, goes on to tell Cassidy that they had actually tried three different recording companies.  Cassidy notices the disappointed look on Josie’s face.  Cassidy says, “Do you mind if I ask which record labels they were?”  Josie, “Yeah, sure” and goes on to explain which record labels they were.  “The first one was called Smashed Records, they came and heard us play one night but they didn’t even consider us to be worth signing.”  Cassidy asks, “Who were the other two?”  “The second label was called Roadside Records, they had heard one of our demos we had sent in to them.  They made out that they would sign us within the next couple of weeks but that never happened.  The worst record label was the one that really screwed us over, it was called Black Label Records.”  Cassidy enquires, “How did they screw you over, because they are supposed to be a pretty good label to be on from what I’ve heard?”  Josie explains, “They were supposed to come down and listen to us perform and they told us they were bringing the contracts with them but they didn’t show up so we decided to call them to see what was going on and when the secretary was supposed to put us on hold she accidentally didn’t and we got to hear exactly what they thought of us.”  Josie goes on, “Ever since then I just don’t enjoy the music as much anymore and I even thought about giving it up.”

Josie asks Cassidy, “Do you have any advice on who would be a good record company to go to to try and get a contract?”  Cassidy sitting there thinking for a few moments says, “I might have a few companies in mind, I’ll see what I can do for you.”  Natalia looks up from the computer, with the look on her face which says, “If only Josie knew how much you really know about the music industry!”  Cassidy goes on to ask Josie if she would tell her more about this friend she knew when she was younger.  When Natalia hears this question she has a small grin on her face for she already knows who Josie is talking about.  Josie goes on to explain to Cassidy everything she knew about her friend called Adams.

Cassidy and Josie continue to talk for another ten minutes.  Shortly after Cassidy excuses herself and gets up from the table.  As she goes to leave she says, “Natalia, I need to talk to you for a minute.”  Natalia says, “But I’m busy and in the middle of solving this problem.”  Cassidy, “Now, I need to talk to you right now!”  Natalia stops what she is doing, gets up and both she and Cassidy walk over to the end of the bar where Alexandra and the guys are now sitting.  Cassidy says to Natalia, “Do you think she’s talking about Drake?”  Before Natalia can answer Dara butts in and asks, “What are you talking about?”  Natalia explains to Dara and the others that Cassidy has got it into her head that Josie’s friend that she knew when she was younger is Drake. 

Gitan finishes drinking the blood which is in front of him then goes on to ask Cassidy, “Why do you think it’s Drake?”  Cassidy replies, “It’s just a feeling because of the way Josie has described her friend that she calls Adams, which happens to be Drake's last name.”  Alexandra asks, “But I thought Drake was born in our time so how could he be the person Josie is talking about now, since we have all known Drake for many millennia?”  Cassidy shrugs her shoulders and says, “I don’t know, maybe I’m just reading too much into this.” 

Meanwhile Josie is still sitting at the table when she notices something that looks familiar to her sticking out from the bag that Natalia has left on the table.  She reaches across the table and picks up one of the three small obelisks out of the bag.  She looks over towards where Cassidy, Natalia and the others are standing and she thinks to herself that she has seen these markings before.  Josie reaches out for her Apple Pro computer which is sitting just in front of Natalia’s laptop.  She pulls it over to her and opens it up and turns it on.  After a few seconds of looking on what used to be her mother’s computer she finds the correct file.  Leaning over she takes out a small headset from her computer bag.  After putting the headset on she instructs the computer to read the file she has found.  As it does so Josie picks up the obelisk and begins to rotate each piece separately.  As she aligns each piece they light up and just as she aligns the last piece she gets a strong electrical shock from it.  Unbeknown to Josie the obelisk is actually reading her DNA.  All of a sudden she gets an overwhelming sense of evil emanating from the obelisk which makes her sick to her stomach.  At the very same time it and the air surrounding her goes icy cold to the point where, when Josie breathes out she can see her own breath.  Within that breath she sees a full rotting face staring back at her and she hears her name being called in a whisper “Josieeeee.”   She quickly drops the obelisk which knocks over the drink she has in front of her, flash-freezing it to the table and to the obelisk.  Josie nervously looks over to where the others are standing.  Natalia is looking at her and she just smiles at Josie. 

A few seconds later Josie is seen packing up the computer and as she stands up to leave Natalia is standing right in front of her which startles her.  Josie stutters, “I-I-I’m so sorry, I have to go!”  Natalia stands there scratching her head and wondering what is going on.  She then looks down at the table and sees the obelisk and the drink flash-frozen to the table.  She reaches out to pick it up and the lettering on the obelisk begins to glow again.  At that very moment the other two obelisks come flying out of the bag and the three of them slam into each other and with that there is a sound like a massive clap of thunder which makes everyone in the club look over to where Natalia is standing.

A bright light is now emanating from the three obelisks and then there is a huge flash and a massive shockwave that passes through the nightclub which knocks everyone over.  Everyone else in the nightclub, including the people on the door, hear what appears to be a clap of thunder as well.  Those on the second floor see the huge flash of bright light.  Everyone is so terrified that they immediately start running for their lives.  By this time Cassidy and Gitan are back on their feet.  As they help the others to their feet all the security staff from downstairs, including from the front door, have now reached the third floor.  Cassidy yells at them, “Get everyone else who is still here out of the club then lock this place down.”  The head of security answers, “At once, my lady!”  With that Cassidy and Alexandra go to help Natalia to her feet as Dara, Gitan and Newar help the other immortals and humans who are still on the third floor to their feet.  As Natalia gets to her feet Cassidy says, “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT???”  Natalia tries to explain that somehow the safe stones have become active and that must have been some sort of defence mechanism which was triggered.  Cassidy asks, “Can you switch it off?”  Natalia answers, “I have no idea, but I can try.”                     .....To Be Continued.....