The Legend of Silver and Gold Book Two The Old Ones
Chapter Twelve

The next morning, Tora woke up to see Carver and Elizabeth talking quietly by the window. It looked like they were looking outside at something. “What’s going on?” Tora asked as she got out of bed.

Carver looked at her. It was hard to miss the worried look on his face. “We need to get going.” He told her. “Wake up Molly.”

Tora watched Carver get his wallet and his car key. “What’s happening outside?” Tora asked. She could tell something was wrong.

“Looks like whoever took your mother and Nichallo has found us.” Elizabeth explained. She didn’t know how that was possible and yet there were several men, if they were even men, in black suits and two well-dressed men, one of whom was wearing a cowboy hat. “I don’t think we’ll be able to sneak out without being noticed.”

Molly woke up. “They’re here, aren’t they?” She asked. She could see the worried looks on everyone’s faces.

“We’re pretty sure they have.” Carver replied. It was pretty clear to him that they had to escape. If the person who had checked them in were still at the front counter, they would recognize him.

Elizabeth took out her batons. She knew a fight was coming. “When I say go, run to the car.” She told the others. “I’ll try to buy you as much time as I possibly can.”

Carver looked at her. “I’m not going to leave you behind.” He told her. “I can’t just watch over these two and save the others on my own.” He couldn’t carry that kind of responsibility, not after what had happened to his wife.

Elizabeth went up to Carver. “Get them out of here. I’ll hold these guys off and meet you in Providence.” She told Carver. “Just make sure that no one hurts them and you’ll do well.” The last thing she wanted was for either of the two girls to get hurt. “Now go!”

Carver was about to say something but before he could, Elizabeth rushed out of the hotel room. He went over to the window and watched Elizabeth start to attack the men. Figuring it was too late to change the plan, he turned to the two kids. “Let’s get out of here.” He told them.

Howard and Salazar watched the immortal warrior as she took down their men. They quickly hid behind a car, neither of them wanting to face the fearsome warrior just yet.

“We should have brought the police in to help us.” Salazar said as the sound of their warriors being taken down could be heard. “Elizabeth wouldn’t have been so eager to fight if there were actual law abiding police here with us.”

Howard looked at his partner. “Are you kidding?” He asked. “Having the police here would have just raised questions that neither of us can answer honestly.” The last thing he wanted was for the police to look too closely at Salazar and him. “Besides, the police here have no idea about what we’re up to and the police back in the city are too busy with solving the girl’s mother’s murder.” He knew that the police would be held up trying to figure out who had killed Molly’s mother and be looking for Molly in the city. They wouldn’t have any reason to look out the city and he didn’t want them asking Carver or Elizabeth questions.

They saw one of their men flying over them into the next car. “Well, we better do something.” Salazar said. “Elizabeth can’t have that many of our men left to throw around.” He didn’t want to see how many of their men they had left.

Howard’s ears perked up as he heard a vehicle driving away. He looked towards the entrance to the highway, his eyes widening as he saw Molly’s face in the back window. The girl was watching the fighting. “The silver child is getting away!” He shouted, standing up. He turned around to face Elizabeth. He noticed that they didn’t have a lot of men left standing. Most of them had gone down. “Want a job done right, do it yourself.” He said to himself. He took out an old pistol and aimed it at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth looked at Howard. “Do you really think that that old pistol is going to hurt me?” She asked before she charged toward him.

“This won’t kill you but you’ll be feeling pain for a while.” Howard replied before he fired the gun. A bolt of energy came out and hit Elizabeth, shocking her until she was unconscious. She collapsed to the ground.

Salazar stood up and looked at the unconscious Elizabeth. “How about next time you start with that?” He asked. “Instead of letting her use our men for punching bags!”

“Sorry old friend, I couldn’t use it right away unless I was sure it was absolutely necessary.” Howard said. “After all, that was before I saw that the girl just escaped us.” He looked toward the highway. He couldn’t see the car that Molly had been in anymore. No doubt they were farther down the highway now. “However, we do have a good idea of where they might be going.”

Salazar frowned. “What do you mean?” He asked. “Howard, there are several exits on this highway. They could be trying to reach one of them and then disappear onto the back roads.” By the time they were done tying Elizabeth up, having her locked up in a trunk and getting their men in the vehicles, Carver and the two girls would be long gone.

“That would be true except that we have their friends tied up in Providence, Rhode Island.” Howard reminded Salazar. “No matter where Carver goes, no matter what he does, he will have to come to Providence if he ever wants to see his friends again and stop Tempest from releasing the Old Ones.”

Salazar wasn’t sure if Howard’s plan was as sound as it sounded but he knew that Howard was right. If Carver ever wanted to see his friends again, he would have to come to Providence. “What if he doesn’t come to Providence?” He asked, wondering if there was a plan for that.

“Then we leak to the police and the F.B.I. if they’re involved with investigating Molly’s disappearance that Carver has her. We give them everything so they can replace Carver and once they have Molly, we take her to the Old Ones.” Howard replied. Only a silver child could defeat the Old Ones and Molly was the silver child. Carver would be locked up behind bars where he wouldn’t be able to stop the Old Ones from rising, Tora would be placed in the foster system while the police and F.B.I. tried to replace her mother and Molly would be theirs.

Down the road

Carver looked in the rearview mirror. He didn’t know how much time Elizabeth had given him but he didn’t want to waste a second of it. Not seeing the black SUVs that the men had back at the hotel, he looked ahead.

“Carver, who were they?” Tora asked. She had seen the men fighting Elizabeth. She knew that they had been there for the four of them. She had seen the man in the cowboy hat looking at them when they had left. “Do they work for the Old Ones?”

“If I had to take a guess, yes.” Carver replied. “No doubt they want to capture all of us before we can stop them from releasing the Old Ones.” It reminded him of the Dark Ones and their servants. They had gone to great lengths to try to capture Skye and Cassidy. Now the Old Ones had Cassidy and just needed Molly.

Molly could feel her heart beating quickly. She hadn’t taken Carver and Elizabeth seriously but now she could tell that they were telling the truth. She had seen the man in the cowboy hat looking at them. It was almost like he had known she was there.

“Where are we going to go now?” Tora asked. “They must know where we’re going if they found us at that hotel. We’ll be walking into a trap.”

“What I want to know is how they knew we were there to begin with.” Molly said. “How did they know we had left New York City for good? They found us too quickly for it to just be a coincidence.” There was something about those men she didn’t like.

Carver wasn’t sure what to say. He wasn’t even sure what he was supposed to do. Elizabeth had told him to meet her in Providence but he had a feeling that that was what the Old Ones wanted him to do. Seeing a road that went into an empty field to their right, he turned the blinker on. He pulled off of the highway and onto the road.

“Where are we going?” Tora asked.

Carver didn’t reply. He just kept driving until they were well out of sight of the highway and nowhere close to any tree. After a few minutes, he parked the car.

“Carver, what are we doing out here?” Molly asked. She wondered if the man was having a breakdown. She didn’t feel safe out in the open field even if they were hidden from the highway.

“I need to think of what we’re going to do now.” Carver replied before he got out of the car.

Tora and Molly looked at each other before they both got out as well and ran over to Carver. They could tell that he had a worried look on his face.

“Carver, what about my mom?” Tora asked. “I thought we were going to save her and Nichallo.”

“Elizabeth is supposed to meet us in Providence.” Molly reminded Carver. “What will she do when she realizes that we’re not there to group up with her?” She didn’t want to face those men without Elizabeth helping them. She had seen the way Elizabeth had taken them down so easily.

Carver knew that both of the girls were right but he could also tell that they didn’t see the entire picture like he did. There was something that they were missing. Something that was off. “Molly, check your phone.” He told her.

Molly frowned. “Why?” She asked. Elizabeth didn’t have her number. Not a lot of people had her number.

“Check to see when your mother last called or sent you a text.” Carver explained. He noticed that Tora had a confused look on her face.

Molly shook her head but took her phone out. “She tried to call me this morning.” She said before she noticed something. “Until that last call, she had tried to call me nonstop since I disappeared yesterday.”

“I thought so.” Carver said. “What type of a mother just stops calling her child even when she knows her child is still missing?”

Tora’s heart sank. She had a feeling she knew where Carver was going with this. “You think something happened to her, don’t you?” She asked.

Molly shook her head. “You’re both being ridiculous.” She said. “Nothing bad happened to my mom. I’ll prove it.” She dialed her mom’s number. She sighed as it went straight to voice mail. “You know what? Nothing is wrong. My mom probably just decided that I had run away and doesn’t care. She doesn’t really care about me. Not for a while now.”

Carver took his phone out and brought up the news app. “Or maybe because of this.” He said after a few seconds. He held his phone out to the two girls to see.

Molly couldn’t believe what the news article’s title read. “Mother found murdered in apartment.” She said in a shaky voice. “Georgia Miller, mother of the missing girl, Molly Miller, was found…” She couldn’t finish the first sentence of the article. Instead, she walked away quickly.

“Her mom is dead?” Tora asked in a quiet voice.

Carver nodded. “No doubt the Old Ones did that to try to corner us.” He said. “With Molly missing in the eyes of the law and her mother found murdered, it’s just a matter of time before the authorities tie her to Elizabeth and me.” He wasn’t sure if the Old Ones planned for Elizabeth and him to go to jail for ‘kidnapping’ but he knew that he didn’t have a lot of options now.

“Would they really be able to connect her to you two?” Tora asked. She didn’t remember anyone seeing Molly getting into their car. Or that anyone could have seen Molly in their vehicle once they had left.

“I’m sure that any of the surveillance cameras in the city could have spotted her in the car.” Carver reminded Tora. He knew that each intersection and road entrance to the city had surveillance cameras. He looked at his car. Even if they didn’t think to look too closely at his vehicle in the surveillance, given how many people usually left and drove into the city, anyone who had witnessed his vehicle speed away could have seen Molly in the back.

“What do we do then?” Tora asked. “Carver, we can’t let the police or the F.B.I. take Molly away or lock you up.” She didn’t even want to think about what they would do to her.

Carver pocketed his phone. “I’m not sure.” He admitted. “We could go north to Canada and wait to see what the F.B.I. says if they announce an Amber Alert for Molly but we don’t have a lot of time.”

Tora took her phone out and looked up the news to see if there was anything else about Molly. “It doesn’t seem like they have announced an Amber Alert for her just yet.” She said. “That’s weird. Do you think the Old Ones are trying to keep their activities a secret?”

“If they are, then I hope they did the murder in a normal human way.” Carver replied. He knew that it sounded horrible to say but if the Old Ones didn’t want to reveal themselves just yet, they would do things the human way. He looked at Molly. The girl was sitting down the road with her face buried in her arms. “How about you go talk to her.” Carver told Tora. “I need to make a phone call.”

Tora frowned. “Who are you going to call?” She asked. She didn’t think that they had that many allies left.

“Just going to call an old friend to see what the police or the F.B.I. knows.” Carver replied. He had a few friends in the police force. He wasn’t sure if he could call them friends or not. They had been the people he had spoken to the most about his wife’s murder back when the police had been looking into it before declaring a cold case. He went over to his car before taking his phone back out. He dialed a number and waited a few seconds before someone picked up.

“This is Detective Hamilton.” A male voice said on the other end.

“Hey Detective, it’s me. Carver Matthews.” Carver said. “I don’t know if you remember me or not.”

“Carver, of course.” Detective Hamilton said. “I never forgot you. Your wife’s murder was the one case I could never solve.”

Carver winced a little. “I’m calling you about that.” He said. “I just saw in the news that another strange murder had happened earlier today. I wasn’t sure if your precinct was in charge of solving it but,”

“You were wondering if there was anything similar to your wife’s strange murder.” Detective Hamilton said. “I had a feeling that you would call sooner or later about unusual murders. You took her loss hard. How are you feeling by the way?”

Carver looked around. He wasn’t sure how to best answer that. After all, he was feeling a lot of things at the moment. “I’m doing fine.” He finally said. “It’s probably silly to ask if there were any similarities but I was curious.”

“I understand.” Detective Hamilton told Carver. “Can’t exactly say a lot but this murder isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen before. There’s what appears to be signs of a struggle but the wounds that I saw I can’t explain. I can’t tell you right now what it was that killed her but we did replace what looked like tiny pieces of wood around her body.”

Carver was silent. So it was Shub-Niggurath who had killed Molly’s mother. That just confirmed his suspicion that the Old Ones were behind the murder and that they were trying to force Molly into a corner. “Pieces of wood?” He asked.

“Yeah. I know it was a couple of years ago but did your wife and you have any small trees in your old apartment?” Detective Hamilton asked.

Carver frowned. That was a strange question to ask. “No, we didn’t. Might I ask why?”

“Might be nothing but the pieces of wood forensic found have appeared in two other locations.” Detective Hamilton explained. “One being Nichallo Pensar’s magic shop but that isn’t surprising since his floor, beams and shelves were all made of wood. The other was your home close to your wife’s body.”

Carver felt like his whole world was shattered. “You’re thinking that whoever killed this woman also killed my wife and a shop owner?” He asked in a shaky voice as he sat down in the driver’s seat of his car.

“Not certain the shop owner is dead but yes.” Detective Hamilton replied. “The woman’s daughter is still missing so we’re not sure how many murdered victims we might have. Last anyone saw of her was yesterday when she was being chased by several officers and men. That precinct is being investigated.”

Carver resisted the urge to sigh with relief. So the police and Feds were investigating another police precinct instead of him. That must have meant that they had either dismissed all the vehicles in the surveillance except the ones that the Old Ones’ servants had used or they hadn’t gone through the surveillance yet.

“Carver, I got to go.” Detective Hamilton said. “I’ll let you know if we replace anymore leads or the one who possibly killed your wife.”

Carver nodded. “Of course. Thank you though for letting me know.” He said before he hung up. Carver looked at the two girls. They were still talking. Carver looked in the direction that they had come from. He knew that it would still be risky to take the highway if the Old Ones had their servants driving on it as well. He wasn’t sure if the road they were now on would take them to Providence or another town that had a main road but he knew he felt better if they stayed on it. He decided to give the girls a few more minutes before they would resume their journey.