Chapter Twenty Four: The Great Good and Equal Evil

 Gregg and Kaine thought that they'd try again to knock the door down again. And with one heavy hit the door flew open. Livia was gone.
 
 "No. This can't be happening. I promised to protect her. Why did I let her go alone…" Jordan rambled on.
 
 A rage filled Jim. He was going to kill Stanley. He took Livia. "I'm going to kill him…" He mumbled.
 
 Hestia went to Jordan's side and hugged her tight. Trying to comfort her, stroking her hair, listening to her rambles.
 
 "Everybody go back in the living room!" Gregg yelled. "Except you two." He pointed to Jim and Kaine. "Come on, help me block this door."
 
 Everyone who came in the hallway to see what was the matter did as Gregg said. Jim and Kaine stayed back to help him block the door as requested. After they were done they came back into the living room too.
 
 The anger, fear, and worry that filled each of the witches' minds filled the air and became thick and dense. Like a fog they were all lost in.
 
 It was happening, it was really happening. Once again Jordan changed her mind. Now that she got what she wanted, she didn't want it anymore. She wished this was some dream and that she'd wake up and everything would be back as it was and she'd have everyone she loved with her. What a perfect world that would be. But there is no world that perfect anywhere close to here.
 
 About twenty minutes later there was a banging at the front door. Everyone jumped. Jordan looked to everyone around her. She got up and walked towards the door.
 
 "Be careful Jordan." Demeter said holding tight onto Aimery.
 
 Jordan got to the door and the banging banged harder. Then she heard a familiar voice. It was Livia.
 
 "Let me in! Hurry! He's gonna get me!" She cried.
 
 Without a thought, taken away by emotion Jordan opened the door. Livia ran through and shut the door behind her. She turned around and locked the door. She turned back around again and hugged Jordan tight.
 
 "Jordan, he tried to get me." She said weakly. "It's not Stanley." She collapsed in Jordan's embrace.
 
 "Gregg! Kaine! Help me lay her down. She fainted." Jordan called.
 
 The two boys joined by Jim ran over and carried her over to the couch and laid her down. Her arms were all cut up as if a rabid animal attacked her. Her makeup was smeared all over her face, and her whole body looked sheet white. Her clothes were torn. Jordan noticed a funny mark on her hand. Two puncture wounds as if she was bit by something.
 
 Jordan held that hand up and looked at Gregg. He looked down at the hand. He did a double take and grabbed Livia's hand in his own and examined the bite. It looked like it was infected.
 
 An hour later Livia came back among the conscious, but she was still very weak. "You gotta tie me up." She said weakly. "He got inside me. I tried to fight him… but he got me." She held up her hand with the bite. "He bit me again."
 
 "Livia, what did he do to you?" Jordan said.
 
 "He got me." She said even more weakly. "Tie me up so I don't hurt anyone. You've got to do it."
 
 Jordan looked at Gregg and Kaine. "Go get some rope. There's some in the garage. Hurry please."
 
 They looked a little uneasy going to get some rope to tie up a friend. They did it anyway, they knew Livia must know what she is talking about. They hoped.
 
 Jim looked at Livia and just shook his head and clenched his fists. "I'm really going to kill Stanley."
 
 Livia looked shocked at Jim and then she looked to Jordan. "It's not Stanley, Jordan."
 
 "What?" She said shocked. She heard Livia the first time when she came in the door, but she didn't know if it was just because she was in shock. "Who is it Livia?"
 
 Gregg and Kaine came in with the rope from the garage.
 
 "Good. Tie me up before I hurt someone." Livia said.
 
 Even though they didn't want to, they began to tie Livia up. She moaned in pain when they would accidentally touch one of her scratches. They wanted to stop but she insisted that they continue.
 
 "Livia," Jordan whispered to her. "Who is it?"
 
 Livia looked at her with pain in her eyes. "It's one of the people from the mass murder in Canada. He told me you'd know what I'm talking about."
 
 Jordan had forgotten about that site. It was one of the people from there? But what about Stanley? She knew she had to go and look, and she would have to go up to her room. Jordan glanced over at Gregg.
 
 "Gregg, watch Livia. I have to go to my room. I'll be right back. Hestia?" She went over to Hestia.
 
 "Yeah?" She said.
 
 "Come up with me to my room. I have to look something up." Jordan whispered.
 
 "Um, okay." She said unsure.
 
 They both went up to her room. Once she was in the room she explained to Hestia what was going on. "You mean all this time it wasn't Stanley?!" Hestia exclaimed.
 
 "Shh... Yeah." Jordan got on her computer and found the site that had the report about the mass murder.
 
 She read to Hestia what she had read earlier. Then sheer terror went across their faces. The people that committed the murders were members of the Fire of Blood. From the members that were caught that would talk they explained that they were doing The Full Moon of Power ritual. The woman who was pregnant dialed 911 on a phone that was thrown on the floor with her toes. Right before she was going to be killed and have her child ripped from her stomach the police showed up. So the ritual was never fulfilled. Five of the members were never caught that night. According to other members the five would not stop until one of them completed the ritual.
 
 Jordan then scrolled down to an update. Three of the five were caught and convicted. Now only two went free. They had police sketches. Jordan clicked on the first thumbnail. There was a black and white drawing of a young black boy with thick dreadlocks to his shoulders. Big brown eyes, he was very handsome. Jordan hit the back button and clicked the other thumbnail. The entire colour drained from the two girls' faces. They couldn't believe whose face they were looking at.
 
 They heard the sound of rapid footsteps running towards the door. Jordan's door came flying open. Jim rushed through the door.
 
 "Livia's gone! The bastard took her!" Steaming tears rolled down his eyes as he stared at the two girls. Then he glanced over at the computer and saw the picture.
 
 "He's the one in the Canadian murder thing?!" Jim yelled with anger flowing from his voice.
 
 "Yeah, all this time it wasn't Stanley. It was him. How'd he get Livia? I thought I told Gregg to watch her?!" Jordan said.
 
 "We all were, and then this weird mist filled the room and I grabbed Livia's hand and it was like I put my hand through a cold spot! Her hand wasn't there and when the mist went away she was gone!"
 
 The three ran down the stairs. Jordan ran up to Demeter and Aimery. She punched Aimery in the face. Demeter screamed and looked at Jordan with puzzled look filled with horror.
 
 "Why did you do that?!" Demeter screamed at Jordan.
 
 "All this time it wasn't Stanley. It was him. Just ask him, he's a member of the Fire of Blood. And that's the cult that Stanley followed, the same one that has a ritual that was going to sacrifice you as a baby Demeter, and Aimery planed to do the same to my mom's baby. "
 
 Demeter's eyes filled with fear and shock. She looked from Aimery to Jordan. She didn't know what to believe. Her sapphire eyes glossed with tears ready to emerge. "Aimery is this true?"
 
 Vera looked to Leslie. "Did you know about this?!"
 
 "No, he didn't Vera, and yes Demeter, it's true. I'm the one who plans to murder this coven, and I will. Don't forget, you have me, but I have Livia. We are one." Aimery smiled sinisterly.
 
 He sat up and seemed to crawl like a sleek cat towards the wall. "And since we are one, she feels my pain. Maybe not in the same way, but everything you do to me, fills her with more rage, and the more the better."
 
 Jordan's eyes narrowed, the anger in her filled from her forehead into her whole body. It was coarse and hotter than lava. "Why Livia?" She said.
 
 "Why?" Aimery's sinister smirk widened. "Because I got in touch with her 'Equal Evil'." He flipped out a shiny blade from his jean pocket. It was Stanley's athame.
 
 "My dad's athame…" Kaine whispered.
 
 "Yes, your dad's athame," Aimery said. "Livia!"
 
 Livia's came around the corner into the room like an eerie mist. Her skin was whiter than white, so much she seemed to be a ghost of her former self. Her dark blue eyes piercing the room angrily. The bite on her hand was pulsing and a yellowish glow came from it and it was beginning to rush through her body.
 
 "Leave Livia alone!" Jordan yelled.
 
 "He doesn't need to leave me alone Jordan. I like the way I am." Livia growled. Though her voice was the same, but it was not Livia.
 
 "What have you done to her?!" Jim yelled, he went to go race towards Aimery, but Kaine and Gregg held him back.
 
 "He made me see the light. That the Greater Good is nothing compared to what the Equal Evil can give you." Livia smiled.
 
 "That's not true!" Jordan said. "You know that Livia! Darkness and this so called power that this thing Aimery worships is nothing compared to love and friendship."
 
 "Ha! A lot you know Jordan!" Aimery laughed.
 
 "Well, you should know, you were loved Jordan." Livia said, a tear rolled down her eye. "I admit you people liked me, but it was nothing compared to anyone else. I always got what was left. The small portion of love. And that is nothing!"
 
 Kaine let go of Jim and walked up next to Jordan. "Livia, you know that isn't true. I don't know what deluded things this jerk told you, but we all love you. I love you, Jordan loves you, Gregg loves you, Jim loves you, Georgia loves you. The list keeps going on."
 
 Like being snapped out of a trance Livia's sinister look seemed to vanish. "Oh, guys I'm sorry… I don't know… what… happened to me…"
 
 Aimery glared at Livia and the liquid venom of his deceit grew back in her blood, and the sinister look came across her face again.
 
 Jordan glared at Aimery, such hatred filled her, and that's when everything in the room stopped. She stared at the situation for a moment in the sudden pause of time. She had figured it out. Aimery didn't worship a thing like as in Satan, they worshiped the evil within themselves, that was the Equal Evil. It was no deity, or corrupt God. It was themselves. It was in everyone, like a yin-yang. She had no idea how simple it was. All a sudden time started again and the scene resumed.
 
 "I think it's time for the first sacrifice!" Aimery yelled and grabbed Demeter by her long blonde hair.
 
 "No!" Jordan screamed and ran towards him.
 
 He punched her as soon as she came into his reach. She went flying back into Kaine. He picked her up and checked to see if she was okay.
 
 The other coven members started to go towards him. What was a whole room of witches against one guy? But Aimery was something to be reckoned with. He had great power, he had Demeter. He held his blade up to her neck, so no one would approach him.
 
 Shina began pounding repetitively screaming against the wall. But no matter how hard she pounded against it, she was hurting her hands more than making any progress. He was loving the anger he was setting into that house, and he was feeding upon it, and then passing it on to Livia to keep the Equal Evil in her.
 
 Aimery smiled evilly and threw Demeter into Livia's grasp. He flipped the athame in his hands. "This is what I really think of you Demeter my love."
 
 "Livia!" Jordan yelled. "I know you have Great Good in you. We all do. It's not your fault that you let yourself give into what Aimery told you! It's in us all! We are all good and all evil! Your good is just as powerful as your evil! But only you can decide which you choose!"
 
 Once again the trance of Aimery's lies flooded out of Livia's body. She shook her head and screamed for Aimery to stop, but it was too late. He had shoved the athame into Demeter's chest.
 
 "No… Demeter… I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry…" Livia held Demeter in her arms. Demeter wasn't even trying to hold onto life, not like she could anyway. Listening to her sisters' cries, Livia couldn't handle it anymore.
 
 As she screamed a force like a sonic boom pierced out of her body and aimed its way towards Aimery. She lunged herself toward him like an arrow from Artemis to her target. Aimery went flying towards the other side of the room, hitting the wall. Livia was on the verge of losing consciousness, Demeter laid from her fingertips on the floor, and Livia fell to her knees. Shina, Skrina, and Hestia ran to their sister's still body, crying caressing her lifeless face. Hot tears rolled down Livia's face. So badly she wanted to pass out and not wake up.
 
 Kaine and Jordan ran to Livia and Kaine put his arms around her. She was frozen in the same expression. Amenia came over and told Kaine to call the police. Amenia put her own arms around Livia. She knew she had to get Kaine and Jordan away from Livia. There was nothing to do about it. She knew what was going to happen.
 
 "Jordan, go get me a wet cloth." Amenia said.
 
 "Um, okay. " Jordan ran into the bathroom to get a wet cloth for Amenia.
 
 Amenia grabbed Livia's face and pointed it towards hers. Livia seemed to be getting out of the shock. "Don't worry, you're going to be okay. Remember to always be good, and remember me."
 
 Remember me? Livia thought. It sounded like she was going away. Livia was still a little out of it, so she thought she just heard wrong. Jordan just came out of the bathroom with the wet towel when Aimery jumped up and threw the athame straight for Livia's back. Amenia quickly turned both of them around and the athame struck her with a deadly blow. Livia's eyes grew large. She didn't hear wrong. Amenia shocked and gave a shocked look of pain.
 
 Loren picked up a coat hanger and whacked Aimery over the head with it. He fell to the floor losing his consciousness.
 
 Livia let out a scream that could be heard in the whole neighborhood. The little bit of the rage and the evil in her body freed itself from her and floated invisibly into the air and faded. Jordan rushed to catch her when she fainted.