667: Issue #7 Pt. 2 "The Seventh Son"

“How are you adjusting?” Violet checked in on me as we walked the vast field behind Cassandra’s mansion.

“Pretty good. I like it here, but I really want to see New Orleans some more.” I gripped her hand and held her close to me as we walked.

“We’ll get there, but we have a lot more work to do before then.” Violet swung my arm as we spoke.

“I know; still a lot to find out. Josiah showed me that I was number 667; I figured I would have been the seventh.” I rubbed the back of my head with my free hand.

“So did I. How did you get that nickname by the way?” Violet brought up another question that I had been waiting for since we met again in Baton Rouge.

“I was the 7th child that my foster parents had taken in. They kept me longer than some of the others because I was an unnaturally quiet kid and didn’t protest too much when they chose not to feed us or beat us into line. It wasn’t until DCF came for us that I was finally free to do my own thing and that is when the rebelliousness started.

I was twelve when I went to the next home and I made it hell for them and all the others after until I was too old to keep in government care and they sent me off on my own. Sam found me not long after and when I told him my story, he gave me the nickname Seven. It was a reminder of what I overcame.” I retold a story that was almost too hard to tell.

“Strange that it all added up that way.” Violet stroked my arm as she leaned herself into me.

“At this point, nothing seems strange.” I kicked at a rock and sent it skittering through the tall grasses.

Violet was silent for a moment before she spoke, “I have a question I wanted to ask you.” She paused in her step and pulled out a piece of paper that was folded tightly.

“Shoot.” I watched as she unfolded the sheet and turned it around for me to see.

“Do you recognize this symbol?” She showed me a circle with the word Abaddon written around it and an inverted pentagram in the middle.

“Not really.” I wondered where she was going with this. Where had she seen this symbol?

“I saw you draw this the night that Apollyon attacked. Abaddon and Apollyon are the same thing; a Demon and an Angel.” Violet let me hold the paper as I went over the line work. Her art was not half bad.

“I drew this? When?” I cocked my head to the side in question.

“Right before the Demon and its locust army was sucked back into the pit like a Hoover.” Violet took the paper from me and folded it back up.

“I don’t remember. I told you; it was as if something took over inside me and I knew exactly what I had to do.” I echoed what I had previously told her.

“Maybe this sort of stuff has just been locked away inside our DNA and it’s just now manifesting.” Violet began to walk again and I trailed behind her as I thought about what she said.

“Anything is possible at this point.” I leaned in to kiss the top of her head.

“It will all fall into place eventually. For the time being, we just have to keep going, have to keep searching until we find all the answers.” Violet let her fingers snag long grasses as we crossed to the front of the house.

“We’ll find them. And when we do, it will all make sense.” I held her close as we crossed over the front drive.

She sighed, “I really hope so.”