Genesis. Volume 3.

January 5, 1989. Brookfield. Abandoned building on the outskirts. 7:30 p.m. The stone was cold, but beneath its surface warmth pulsed. Jack felt it with every cell of his body—not the way he'd felt Crowley, but similar. An alien presence, locked in the stone like an animal in a cage. And it was waking up. "What are those symbols?" Max asked, stepping closer. He held his flashlight so the beam fell directly on the stone's surface, but shadows still danced along the edges, making the marks seem almost alive. "I've seen them before," Lisa said, crouching beside Jack. "On Elias's coin. In London, on the altar. It's a seal. The same kind that held Crowley." "But Crowley was locked inside Jack," Arthur said. "And this... what is this?" "Another Devourer," Jack answered, not taking his eyes off the stone. "It was sealed here, in Brookfield, long before we came along. I can feel it. It's sleeping, but it's waking up." "How can you feel it?" Emma asked. She stood off to the side, leaning against the wall, and her voice sounded muffled, as if from underwater. "Crowley is inside you, but this one is different." "It's connected to Crowley," Jack said. "They're all connected. It's one network. When one wakes up, the others start stirring. Like a spiderweb—touch one thread, and the whole web trembles." He got to his feet and stepped back from the stone. The warmth beneath its surface pulsed in time with his heart, and it was strange—feeling a foreign pulse inside himself, inside the stone, inside everything around them. "Who sealed it?" Arthur asked. "The Guardians," Jenny answered. She held one of the letters she'd found in her mother's house. "I read about it. My grandmother wrote that the Guardians sealed Devourers in stones, in earth, in water. Anything that could hold them. And then they passed that knowledge down." "And they didn't tell us?" Max asked. "We thought Crowley was the only one." "Crowley was the strongest," Jenny said. "Or the most dangerous. But he wasn't the only one. There are many." She walked up to the stone and touched its surface with her fingers. The ring on her hand flashed with a dull red light, and Jenny pulled her hand back. "It recognizes me," she said. "It can feel the ring." "What does that mean?" Emma asked. "It means the ring is connected to the seal," Jenny said. "It's part of the system. Like a key to a lock." She clenched the ring in her fist. The metal was warm, almost hot. "We need to reinforce the seal," Arthur said. "Before it fully wakes." "We can't," Jack said. "The seal is already weakened. Someone started breaking it." "Who?" Max asked. Jack didn't answer. He could feel it—a foreign presence that belonged neither to the stone nor to the Devourer. Someone had been here recently. Someone who knew what to do. "The Red Circle," Lisa said. "They're weakening the seals. They want the Devourers to wake." "Why?" Emma asked. "To create chaos," Arthur said. "So we run around putting out fires while they do whatever they need to do." "Or to free someone they want to control," Jack added. He looked at the stone, at its pulsing surface. The alien presence inside it—not Crowley, but another—stirred like a snake in its burrow. "We need to find them," he said. "And stop them." January 6, 1989. Brookfield. The Genesis Mansion. 2:00 a.m. They returned to the mansion long after midnight. Sophia was waiting for them in the living room, wrapped in an old blanket, a mug of hot tea in her hands. Seeing their faces, she asked nothing. She just pulled out chairs and poured tea for each of them. "You found something," she said. "We found a seal," Arthur replied, sitting at the table. "Another Devourer, locked in stone. And it's waking up." "Someone is weakening the seals," Jack added. "The Red Circle." Sophia was silent for a moment, looking at them. Her face was calm, but there was worry in her eyes—the same worry she always hid behind her smile. "I don't know how to help you with this," she said. "I don't know how to fight monsters. But I can be here. I can wait for you. And I will wait." "Thank you, Mom," Arthur said. "You're welcome," Sophia replied. "You are my children. I will always wait for you." She stood and went to the kitchen—to brew more tea. Her steps were quiet but steady. January 6, 1989. Brookfield. The Genesis Mansion. 8:00 a.m. In the morning, Lisa woke early. She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, and felt something new pulsing inside her. The power she'd awakened yesterday hadn't gone away. It was there, in her, like a second pulse. She sat up and looked at her right hand. The cast was still in place, but she could feel her bones knitting faster than they should. As if the power was accelerating the healing. She got up, threw on a sweater, and went downstairs. The kitchen light was already on, and the smell of coffee filled the air. Sophia stood at the stove, flipping pancakes. "You're up early," she said without turning. "Couldn't sleep," Lisa replied, sitting at the table. "Because of what you found?" "That too." Sophia set a plate of pancakes in front of her, poured tea. "Are you scared?" she asked, sitting across from her. "Yes," Lisa admitted. "I thought after Jack sealed Crowley, it would all be over. But this is just the beginning." "It's not the beginning," Sophia said. "It's a continuation. Wars never end, Lisa. They just change. But you change too. You grow stronger." "I know," Lisa said. "But sometimes I just want to be a girl who draws. Who doesn't know about monsters." "You are that girl," Sophia said. "You just know more now. That doesn't make you different. It makes you grown up." Lisa looked at her. Sophia smiled—that same warm smile she always had. "Do you believe we'll make it?" Lisa asked. "I believe in you," Sophia answered. "I always have." January 6, 1989. Brookfield. The Genesis Mansion. 10:00 a.m. After breakfast, everyone gathered in the living room. Lisa showed them what she'd learned to do—create a circle in the air without using paper. It was faint, trembling, but real. "That's impressive," Max said. "But how does it help us?" "It's protection," Lisa said. "If we face a Devourer, I can protect us. At least for a while." "For how long?" Emma asked. "I don't know," Lisa admitted. "I'm still learning." "You'll learn," Jack said. "I know." He sat by the fire, watching her with the same expression he'd worn when he helped her yesterday. There was confidence in his eyes—not Crowley's, not foreign. His own. "Do you feel anything else?" Arthur asked. "Besides the Devourer we found?" "Yes," Jack said. "I can feel them. Not all of them, but some. They're waking up." "Where?" "Everywhere. In Chicago, in Detroit, in New York. They feel the seals weakening, and they're trying to break free." "We have to stop them," Max said. "We can't be everywhere," Jenny said. "There are too few of us." "Then we need to find allies," Arthur said. "People who know, who know how to fight." "How do we find them?" Emma asked. "We already found some," Lisa said. "Claire in Chicago, Marcus in Detroit, Elias in London. We need to reach out to them. Find out what they know." "And what they can do," Arthur added. He looked at Jenny. "You said your mother's letters mentioned other Guardians." "They do," Jenny said. "She wrote that the Guardians were a network. They helped each other. When one found a Devourer, they'd call the others to seal it." "And where are they now?" "I don't know," Jenny said. "Many died. But some may have survived." She looked at the ring on her finger. "The ring can help us find them. It's connected to the network." "How?" Max asked. "I don't know," Jenny said. "But I feel it leading me. Like it did at my mother's house." She clenched the ring in her fist. It pulsed in time with her heart. "We have to go," she said. "Find them before it's too late." January 6, 1989. Brookfield. The Genesis Mansion. 1:00 p.m. Jenny sat in her room, reading the letters for the hundredth time. She was trying to find something that might point the way. Names, places, anything. And she found it. In one of the letters, written by her mother a few weeks before her death, there was a mention of a woman named Eleanor. A Guardian from New York. She knew about the network, about the seals, about how to reinforce them. Jenny read the line several times to make sure she hadn't misread. "Eleanor is the last of us who remembers how to build new seals. If I don't make it, find her. She will help." Jenny set the letter aside. Eleanor. New York. Was she still alive? Or had she died too? She went downstairs and showed the letter to the others. "Eleanor," Arthur said, reading the name. "Do you know who she is?" "No," Jenny answered. "But my mother did. She trusted her." "Then we need to find her," Max said. "In New York," Lisa added. "That's far." "But not too far to get there," Arthur said. "If she knows how to build new seals, she can help us stop the ones waking up." "Or at least slow them down," Jack said. He sat in the corner, holding an old piece of metal he'd found in the basement. He ran his fingers over it, as if trying to feel something he couldn't see. "What is that?" Max asked. "A piece of iron," Jack said. "I found it in the basement. It's old. But there's something in it... memory." "Memory?" Lisa repeated. "Yes. Metal remembers. It holds what was. If I can understand it, I can understand what's happening." He held the metal up to the light. In its dull gleam, something flickered—not light, not reflection. Something else. "Metal remembers," he repeated. "And so do I." January 6, 1989. Brookfield. The Genesis Mansion. Evening. That evening, they gathered in the living room to discuss the plan. Arthur stood by the window, looking out at snow-covered Brookfield, thinking about what they had to do. "We'll go to New York," he said. "Find Eleanor. Learn what she knows." "What about the Red Circle?" Emma asked. "They won't just sit still." "I know," Arthur said. "But we have no choice. If we don't find a way to reinforce the seals, they'll free all the Devourers." "And then we lose," Max said. "Yes," Arthur said. "So we can't afford to lose." Jack sat by the fire, listening. He felt something inside him pulsing in time with their voices—not Crowley, but that new thing that had awakened in him after he'd sealed the monster. A power that belonged to him. "I'm coming with you," he said. "I have to." "We're all going," Lisa said. "We're a team." She looked at her hands—her right, beginning to obey, and her left, already skilled at drawing. There was strength in them. Strength that hadn't been there before. "We're a team," she repeated. January 6, 1989. Brookfield. The Genesis Mansion. Night. That night, Arthur couldn't sleep. He sat in his room, staring into the darkness, thinking about his father. About losing him twice—first his face, then him altogether. About how he might never know what truly happened to him. A knock came at the door. "Come in," he said. Lisa entered. She was in her pajamas, her hair loose, carrying an old photograph. "I found this," she said. "In Dad's things." She handed him the photograph. Arthur took it, brought it to the light. It showed Mark Walker—young, smiling, with his wife and children. They stood on the porch of their house, all of them smiling. "We were happy," Arthur said. "I don't remember that." "Because you don't want to remember," Lisa said. "It hurts." "Yes," Arthur said. "It hurts." He set the photograph on the table and looked at it for a long moment. "I need to know the truth," he said. "What happened to Dad. Why the Circle did that to him." "We'll find out," Lisa said. "All together." She sat beside him, rested her head on his shoulder, just like when they were children. "We'll find out everything," she repeated. Arthur put his arm around her and held her close. He could feel her heart beating next to his, and that was the only thing keeping him from falling apart. "Thank you," he said. "You're welcome," Lisa replied. "You're my brother. I'll always be here."