Book One (needs work)

Lightning struck, illuminating her face for a split second before it vanished back into the shadows, she had been waiting and working towards this moment for the past 300 years. Steeling herself, she put her hood up, pulled out her athame, cut her palm and walked towards the door.

Chapter One - Loss
This all started on April 15th 2017, the day her world collapsed.
She was waiting for uni to finish for the day when she got a garbled call from what she assumed was her mum, it was weird because it had sounded like she said “Look to the past, there you will find what you need”.
Also it sounded like herself, but that’s just crazy, how could you call yourself?.
Getting the bus back home, she called her mum back, after a few rings she picked up
“Hello dear, its nice to hear from you”
“Hey mum, I didn't quite get what you said when you called before, what did you mean?”
“Called before?, what are you talking about?, last time I called you was a few days ago”
“Oh ha-ha, I just got a call from you, like, 10 mins ago, you mentioned something about ‘looking to the past’, I didn’t understand it at all”
“Sweetie are you ok?, I swear I didn’t call you, sure it wasn’t your brother trying to prank you?”
“oh he’s my next call”
“Well I hope you sort it out, bye love”
“Bye mum”
Putting the phone down she began to wonder if she’d even received the call at all and it was just in her head.

At that point her phone rang again, she didn’t know the number, but answered anyway.
“Hello?”
“Ms Katherine Matheson?”
“Yeah that’s me”
“This is Sgt. Collins from the Tyneside Police, I'm afraid I have some bad news, Its about your brother James”
“What about him?, what has he done?”
A foreboding was swelling in her chest with every word she heard next.
“I'm sorry to have to say this but your brother died last...”
It was like everything slowed down, she could feel her phone slide out of her hand and heard it bounce off the seat onto the floor, she could see the bus spinning and then darkness enveloped her. She woke up to to the sound of chatter and a cacophony of beeps, turning her head to the left she saw her mother curled up on a chair next to the bed. Looking around her, her brain finally kicked in and she realised that she was in hospital, “Mum” she croaked, Why did her throat hurt?, more to the point why was she in hospital?, then it all came back, the call, the empty feeling in her chest “MUM” she cried, then burst into tears, she felt arms wrap around her and her mums voice saying everything will be ok.

It turned out that James have been killed in a ‘satanic ritual’, which basically meant that the police didn’t really know what had happened, but the report showed that he had been tied to a broken altar in an abandoned church, with glyphs and summoning circles placed around him. The police figured that between 4 and 6 people were involved, but that was pure conjecture. Its safe to say the newspapers had a field day ‘Teen dead in cult ritual’, ‘Cultist activity rampant in Tyneside’ and ‘Family destroyed by satanism’ just to name a few. Reporters hounded her, she dropped out of University and she isolated herself in her flat.


Ten days later was the funeral, all the family came, but she didn’t really see anyone, all she could see was the loss and pain of living without her brother. “Katey?, Katherine can you hear me?” Her mum asked “your uncle was asking how uni was going”
“What?, oh I dropped out” she replied “there wasn’t much point any more”
“There’s always a point dear” her uncle piped up “you need to think about your future”
“I'm not exactly is the best place at the moment, maybe when I'm feeling better”
“That’s understandable” smiled her uncle “everyone needs time”
The service passed like a blur, but as they were laying the coffin into the ground, she got an epiphany, she needed to look into magic, get to know why James died, then maybe she could get some peace.

Looking around, she felt like a new woman, she had a purpose, a goal and why did she feel like he was being watched?. Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone in a long jacket standing by a nearby gravestone, their head was lowered and a hood hiding their face, but she couldn’t shake the fact that she knew in her bones that the person was watching her. Suddenly the person stooped over, placed something on the gravestone, turn and sprint off.
Without a second thought Katherine set off after them, if you had asked her why, she couldn’t have told you, it was instinct, she had to catch them or at least try too. Leaving the shouts and cries of her family behind her, she worked up to a sprint with nothing but the figure in her mind, after a few minutes she started wishing she was better at running. As the figure weaved their way through the crypts and gravestones, it was often hard to keep track of them, sooner or later though they came back into view, well until they just didn’t. Katherine rounded a mausoleum knowing that she was only 6 steps behind her quarry, but it would seem that’s all they needed, as there was what sounded like a chant and there was nothing except open grass in front of her.

What the hell?, where did they go?, you cant just disappear in to thin air, can you?, shaking her head she decided to check out the gravestone the person was at, maybe that would shed some light on the mystery. As she was talking back, her cousin caught up to her.
“Yo Cuz, what the hell are you doing, your mum is freaking”
“Wait, what?”
“Your mum thinks you lost it, you just took off in the middle of the service”
“Oh sorry, I saw someone suspicious, so I went after them”
“What are you talking about, there was nobody there, all we saw was you”
By this point they had reached the grave site.
“Katherine Isabelle Matheson” her mums voice rang out “WHAT do you think you are doing”
“Well your screwed cuz, sorry”
“Into the lions den I guess” she smiled at her cousin “I thought I saw someone suspicious and went after them, I guess I was wrong, sorry mum”
“You scared me Kate, I thought you had just gone of the deep end, I cant lose you too”
“don’t worry mum, you wont” she smiled, “I was just mistaken” even though she knew she was right, she had to find that grave.
After the service finished she headed over to the aforementioned grave to see what was on it, or what the mysterious person left there.

Sitting on the corner of the gravestone was a folded piece of paper held under a small rock, that weirdly had Katey written on the front, she looked at the name on the grave, just in case she really was being paranoid, but it read Moira McDaggert. Picking up the note she read it to herself.


[Hey Katey, ‘How do they know my mums pet name?’

I know this is a difficult time for you, and while it might not feel like it, you will get better. Anyway I'm sorry I led you on a chase through the graveyard, it was quite a workout!, but I had to wait till you saw me otherwise you would never have got this note. ‘what the hell?, how did they know id chase them?’

You need to be careful, I know what you want to do and it would be easy to fall down the rabbit hole, make sure you don’t, but feel free to have a bit of fun, you deserve it!. Watch out for Johnny too, but if I'm right you are just about to head to the occult bookshop, or are you going because I just gave you the idea?, oh this is just gonna get confusing. ‘Bookshop, that’s a good idea’

I’m….well, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
Take care]