Keepers Of The Occult (NaNoWriMo 2024) Chapter 13: Chapter 12: The Cost Of Duty (Part One)

Read chapter 13 of Keepers Of The Occult (NaNoWriMo 2024) by Mercynarie on NovelPedia.

Hazel didn’t sleep well that night. Images of her parents being torn apart by various supernatural creatures plagued her nightmares. Mysterious men in black suits crept through her mind, striking at her throat and shoving bags over her head. Again and again, she’d wake up in cold sweat, wondering if she had somehow managed to recall her past through sheer force of will. And without fail, she’d simply drop her head back on her drenched pillow after realising that her dreams were too bizarre to be real. Thankfully, the next morning arrived without incident, accompanied by her ringing phone. Hazel was already wide awake by then, so she pulled her phone from the drawer beside her bed and made sure to check the Caller ID this time before answering. “What’s up, Liam?” the girl mumbled, blowing a stray hair from her face. “You’ve been calling me for two mornings in a row. A girl is going to get the wrong idea, you know.” “I need you to come over to the Yokai migration tent immediately.” Liam was clearly not in the mood to joke for some reason. “Something terrible has happened— You know what? Never mind, I’m coming over to your house right now. There’s no time to waste.” Hazel had barely gotten dressed when her doorbell rang. She scurried down the stairs, almost tripping over her feet in the process. It had only been five minutes, and Liam was already at her doorstep. He sure wasn’t joking about having ‘no time to waste’. The girl thanked the Heavens that the doorbell wasn’t loud enough to wake her grandfather up. The sight of a boy her age at their doorstep was going to raise questions she didn’t want to answer. “That was fast.” Hazel opened the door to a very worried-looking Liam. “Did you teleport here in broad daylight? Isn’t that dangerous? What if someone saw you?” Liam practically dragged her out of the house. “Not as much danger as Chester is in,” he whispered, casting a cursory sweep to make sure there were no witnesses. “Hold on tight. I’m bringing us to the tent now.” Darkness engulfed Hazel. ~ ~ ~ The commotion in the tent was deafening even from the outside. Hazel wasn’t exactly surprised after hearing Liam’s account of what went down in the tent the previous day, from Chester’s tantrum to the full lockdown of the whole tent to prevent the Kappa from escaping again. But nothing prepared her for what she was about to witness. “Why didn’t you go after him? Why did you—” “How was I to know he’d throw such a big tantrum and run off like that? He should’ve been strong enough to protect himself—” “Stop making excuses, dammit! If you hadn’t been so harsh on him, none of this would’ve happened. This is on you! ” The wall shuddered as something metallic crashed into it. Hazel stepped over the overturned laboratory table gingerly as she walked into the room, casting awkward glances at the middle-aged couple. Luca was crouching on the floor with his head buried in his palms, while Ava stood facing away from her husband with a bloodstained note gripped tightly in her hand. Liam brushed past Hazel, practically stomping up to the woman with a phone in his hand. “While you were busy arguing over who to blame, I found Chester’s phone on the street. If I know him well enough— and I do— he left his phone behind to tip us off.” Liam’s tone was a lot harsher this time, and he was glaring at Ava. “If you’re finished wasting time thinking about that ransom note, I suggest we get a move on to start searching for him now. ” “There’s no need,” Luca said, holding up another piece of paper with some kind of picture on it. “We received a second note. It has a clear location this time.” “Chester got kidnapped?” Hazel asked. “By whom? How much money do they want?” “By the two Yokai that he failed to catch,” Ava replied sharply. “They don’t want money, or they would’ve taken his phone too. They want an audience with us about their ridiculous demands.” “It’s all my fault. I would never have left him to handle this alone if I knew how dangerous these Eas