*
Simone pulled out a small notebook in her pocket while Tom drove. Tom glanced over at it. "What's that?"
Simone opened it up. "It's to help me explain to you everything I know. There's a certain timeline that I need to put it in so you can understand."
Tom chortled. "OK sure."
Simone was writing for a few minutes with a pen she found in Tom's jeep, when finally she cleared her throat. "Ok, I'm ready."
"Alright hit me."
"So my name is Simone Foster, which you already know. but this thing is much bigger and older than either of us." Tom slowly nodded. "And if you need to pull over at any time so we don't crash, that's probably a good idea."
"Okay?"
"Ok." Simone continued. "I don't come from an ordinary family. We are Therians."
"Therians," Tom repeated. "Ok, so what is that some kind of ethnicity or something?"
"No not really. But I guess you could call it a race. So think about what you know about werewolves. Howl at a full moon, turn into half wolf half man, that sort of thing?"
"Yeahhh?"
"Now we have nothing in common with werewolves, honestly, but that'd be the closest similarity humans know about -"
"Wait so you are saying Therians are like werewolves?"
"No, well kind of," Simone sighed, frustrated. "Just let me explain. Therians are humans with two souls. A human soul and an animal spirit. There's seven different spirits. A Therian can possess one. They are Lupus, Vulpes, Tigris, Sustinere, Belbus, Canis and Pardus. The wolf, the fox, the tiger, the bear, the hyena, the hound, and the panther."
Simone pulled open Tom's glove box and dug around for the papers she saw he had at the diner. She found the one of the black and white picture with the scribble on a slab of wood. She pointed at it, just long enough for Tom to glance over and see what she was referring to.
"This ancient text, the Tortua, is the telling of how Dal Friour fell. The first Island. It was where Therians came from that sunk."
"A whole island, sank?" Tom said in disbelief.
Simone nodded. "Yes. There was war between Therians and humans. Therians turned on their own kind, and the island was sunk under the Mediterranean Sea."
"Wait so how did it sink?"
Simone shrugged. "My guess, probably Therian Sentinels. Therians that have ability to manipulate the elements. They are rare to come by nowadays. Other Therians believe that they had conjured up a monster that sunk it but -"
"So you're saying that Therians can control water and air and shit?"
Simone glared at Tom, irritated. "What? I'm trying to wrap my head around this little fantasy you're telling me. I don't know what it has to do with us being chased by two big black guys in suits, but-"
"It's real Tom. All of it! Why do you think I would waste my time telling you this when we could literally be killed?"
Tom grew silent. "I don't know. Maybe it's your coping mechanism. Hell everyone seems to have one nowadays."
"I'm not making it up. It's real."
Tom sighed. "So what exactly are we up against?"
*
Silas cried out in pain as he was struck by the hammer on his shoulder. His bare feet were covered in his own blood. He spat at the ground, squinting hard to see through the tears and pain.
