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

Carver opened the back door to Nichallo’s shop. “Remember, we need to be quiet.” He told Tora and Elizabeth as they entered. “We don’t know if the place is being watched or not.” He wouldn’t be surprised if the shop was being watched by a creature like Shub-Niggurath. He knew that if the cops had still been at the shop, there would have been a cop at the back door.

Tora looked around. “So this is the place where my mom found out that she was the golden child meant to defeat the Dark Ones.” She said. This was the first time she had ever been in the place despite it being the place where her mom began her journey. She looked at a pedestal. There was an old-looking book under a glass case on it. She wasn’t sure what language the words were written in.

“It’s also where I worked as Nichallo’s assistant during my high school years.” Carver told Tora. He realized that he hadn’t been in the shop since he had told Nichallo what had happened to Skye. He looked at the staircase. He was tempted to go up them but he knew that Skye wouldn’t be up there.

“Carver.” Carver turned to Elizabeth. The immortal had a grim look on her face. “I miss her too.” Elizabeth told Carver before she looked towards the top of the staircase. “How about you go to Skye’s old room? Tora and I can handle looking down here.”

Carver wasn’t sure if he could go to Skye’s old room but he knew that he would be distracted from searching for clues as to where Nichallo and Cassidy were until he dealt with his feelings.

Upstairs, Carver entered a bedroom. It was mostly empty except for a vanity mirror dresser. There was a picture of Skye against the mirror. Carver went up to the dresser and picked up the picture. He knew that the picture had been taken mere days before Skye had been taken away from all of them. He looked down at the wedding ring on his finger. He had never removed it.

“Could really use your help right now.” Carver said as he returned his gaze to Skye’s picture. “Trying to replace out what had happened to your adopted dad and Cassidy.” Carver smiled a little as he remembered getting visions of Skye in San Francisco years before. Back when Skye had been living on the streets by herself and had no one to turn to. “Please send me a vision.” Carver said quietly.

Carver turned around and went to the closet in Skye’s room. He opened it. Just as he thought, it was empty. He knew that Nichallo had most likely taken Skye’s clothes to a thrift store after what had happened but he still wanted to look in it. Carver sighed and closed the door.

“Carver.” Tora said.

Carver turned to the entrance to the bedroom.

Tora was standing there. She had a worried look on her face. “Are you alright?” She asked Carver before she looked at the vanity mirror dresser and Skye’s picture. “Was this Skye’s room?” She then asked.

“It was.” Carver replied as he joined Tora. “Skye lived here until she and I got married. Nichallo had allowed her to keep some of her stuff since our apartment wasn’t that big.”

Tora looked around. “Doesn’t look like anyone has lived in this room for years.” She said before she looked at Carver. “I also noticed that your apartment is lacking a woman’s touch.” She let that sink in before she continued. “I know you said that not everyone gets a happy ever after but what happened with Skye? Why doesn’t anyone talk about her anymore and why isn’t she around?”

“Your mom never told you?” The two turned to see Elizabeth standing in the doorway. “Cassidy didn’t tell you what had happened to Skye?” The immortal asked as she joined them.

“My mom kept avoiding the topic whenever I asked.” Tora replied. “She said it was too painful for her to talk about and it was why Carver stopped talking to everyone.”

Elizabeth looked at Carver. “Do you want to tell her or should I?” She asked. She knew that Carver had more of a right to tell Tora what happened to Skye than anyone else and she wanted to respect that.

Carver sighed. “It was a few years ago.” He told Tora. “I had been at my job at the museum like I usually was for most of the day each day. It was storming that day too. The power kept flickering on and off throughout the day. I thought for sure that we would close the building down because of the power outages.”

Carver thought back to that day. He remembered how uneasy everyone had felt that day. “I checked with my boss to see if we should close the place and he kept insisting that the museum needed to stay open. He said that an important guest was supposed to be arriving that day, someone who could keep the museum open with a very generous paycheck.”

“I called Skye around lunch time. It went straight to voicemail but I didn’t think about it too much. There were some days when she didn’t pick up her phone when I tried to call her. I couldn’t wait to see if she would call me back though. After all, my boss kept saying that our guest was about to arrive any minute.”

Carver took the picture off of the dresser and sat down against the dresser. He gazed at Skye’s picture. “The important guest never arrived that day. Once I was off work, I called Skye again to check up on her. There was still no reply. I went home and saw that our door had been broken down. I rushed in and that was when I found her. She was lying on the carpet in our living room with a large puddle of blood under her.”

Tora realized what Carver was saying. “Someone killed her.” She said, her voice cracking a little. That was why there had been no sign of Skye living at Carver’s apartment and why all of her stuff except for the picture and the dresser was gone.

Carver nodded. “The police couldn’t solve her murder, not that they really put effort into it. With the broken door and her dead body, they just labeled it as a break-in gone wrong and never bothered to try to solve her murder.” He told Tora. “I told Nichallo, Elizabeth and Cassidy about it. We were the only family Skye really had. There was a small funeral for her. Afterwards, I moved out of that apartment and to a new place down town. I resigned from working at the museum and started being an Uber driver.”

Carver looked at his wedding ring as it became quiet in the room. He had a feeling that Elizabeth was keeping quiet out of respect while Tora was thinking about what he had told her.

“Did you ever try to replace Skye’s killer?” Tora asked after a few minutes.

“I tried but there weren’t any leads to follow. None of our neighbors in the apartment building who were there the entire day saw or heard anything unusual.” Carver replied. “I even asked the electronics store across the store to see their surveillance recordings for that day since their camera at the front door would have seen who had entered the apartment complex.”

“The surveillance didn’t show anything?” Tora asked. It sounded like something from one of those cop shows her mom and she watched.

“It showed the front door but no one entered through that door the entire day until I had gotten home.” Carver said. “I had forgotten about the backdoor to the apartment complex. There was no surveillance on that side.”

Tora leaned against Carver. She wasn’t sure what to say. She remembered how her mother had told her that her dad had abandoned them. She had spent days trying to figure out why he would leave them.

Elizabeth then thought of something. “Silver and gold.” She said, causing the others to look at her. “Skye was the silver child and Cassidy was the golden child.” She reminded them. “It takes two to save the world.” She took her phone out and brought up a picture of the Cthulhu. “We know that Shub-Niggurath is one of the Old Ones. What if whoever captured Cassidy and Nichallo was the same one who had Skye killed?”

Carver thought about it. It made sense to him. He had never considered that the murder had been done by a magical being. He remembered what Nichallo had told him once years before. That there would always be a need for a Guardian to protect the silver and gold children.

“I don’t understand.” Tora said. “What does a murder from a few years ago have to do with the kidnapping of my mom?”

Elizabeth looked at Tora. “Your mom is the golden child. Even if she’s an adult now, she is still the golden one.” She explained. “But she wasn’t always the golden child. The one who defeated the Dark Ones the first time was the golden child.”

“Skye wasn’t the first silver child.” Carver added. He got what Elizabeth was saying. “Nichallo had said there had been one, Victoria, back during the first battle against the Dark Ones.”

“Are you two saying that there’s a new silver child out there?” Tora asked. That definitely changed things. “Are we going to try to replace this new silver child?”

“Are we?” Elizabeth asked as she looked at Carver.

Carver thought about it. He wasn’t quite yet ready to replace a new silver child. He didn’t even know where to start looking. He only had known about Skye because of his visions and thanks to Elizabeth. That was when he came up with an idea. “Elizabeth, is your friend still running that antique shop in Brooklyn?” He asked.

Elizabeth realized who Carver was thinking of. She smiled. “Last I knew, he still was.”

“Who are we going to see?” Tora asked.

Carver looked at her as he stood up. “Vanel, the proprietor of Old Timer.” He replied. “He was the one who had sent Elizabeth to San Francisco. He knows where magical beings are in the world.”

Tora’s face lit up. “Would he be able to replace Nichallo and my mom?” She asked.

“He might be able to but if whoever took the two knows that there’s a possible new silver child out there, then that child is in danger.” Elizabeth told Tora. She knew that Tora wanted to replace her mom but if the only thing standing between the kidnapper and the Old Ones was a silver child, then they needed to replace the child first and stop the Old Ones from returning.

“Elizabeth is right.” Carver told Tora. “As much as we want to replace Cassidy and Nichallo, we need to replace the new silver child first.”