The Adventures of Emily Tual: Camp Adventures Book Two

That night, in New Philadelphia, the night sky got even darker. An eerie horse whinnying could be heard. There was no galloping though. In the small city, the temperature dropped from the summer temperature to winter cold. A fog rolled in as the horse whinnying got louder and louder. The odd part though was that there was no galloping to be heard. To the southeast of the city, the Horseman of Death appeared. His horse’s eyes glowed an eerie pale green and his scythe glowed blood red. The Horseman of Death raised his scythe up. It was time to get the girl who had escaped him.

On the other side of the city, Audrey was in her family’s home. It was a nice size home. Not too big but not too small. It was the perfect size for her and her parents. Her parents were downstairs watching television. Audrey was in her room thinking about what had happened earlier that day while drawing artwork. Usually she didn’t have any problem with drawing art but the events that had happened that day made it hard for her to focus. She hadn’t expected the picnic to be ruined by several weirdly dressed thugs and some guy. She wondered why they were evening fighting to begin with. The way that the guy had fought them made her wonder if he was familiar with the thugs. He had to be because he wasn’t scared off by their guns.

Audrey shuddered. For as long as she could remember, she didn’t like guns at all. She couldn’t remember why though. Her parents had told her it was because of an accident that had happened when she was younger but for some reason, she couldn’t remember what the accident was. All she knew about it was what her parents had told her. She looked at what she had drawn. There it was again, the same old doodle that she had drawn on every other art piece that she had done. It looked like an X but the top of it had what looked like a circle on top and the bottom of the X had what looked like small boxes. Her parents joked about it and told her it was probably her way of signing the artwork she had done.

Audrey sighed and leaned back. As she exhaled, she noticed that she could see her breath. That was when she also noticed that it was colder than usual for a summer night. She shook her head. Why was it cold in their house? The lights in her room went out. She sighed and stood up. It was probably a few blown fuses or something. Hopefully her dad would get to work on it right away. She went to her door and that was when she heard her parents’ voices. “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with our fuses.” Her dad said. “Honey, it looks like it might be a blackout around us.” He then said.

Audrey went to her window and looked out. Sure, enough, it was pitch black outside. She couldn’t see anything outside. It was a blackout. It had to be. That was the only thing that made sense. She opened her window and poked her head out a little. She then pulled her head back in. Something was definitely wrong outside. There was no normal evening noise outside. She could hear people talking about car troubles but that was it. There was no barking from the neighbors’ dogs, no crickets and there wasn’t any twittering from the birds.

Audrey closed her window and that was when she heard it. The whinnying of a horse. Her eyes widened. There were no ranches near her home. The closest one that she knew of was farther south of them at the fairgrounds and they didn’t have any horses there yet. There weren’t supposed to be any horses there for another few months. The only other place that she could think of that had horses were at some ranch twenty or so minutes north of New Philadelphia. She heard the whinnying again. It sounded close but at the same time, not close. Audrey backed away from her window as she heard the whinnying getting louder and louder.

“Audrey?” Her mom called out from the hallway. Audrey looked at her bedroom door. She ran to her door and quickly left her room as she heard the whinnying happening more and more. As soon as she was out in the hallway, she was blinded by a bright orange light. “Audrey, do you have a flashlight or a candle with you?” Her mother asked.

Audrey realized that her mother must have had a candle in her hand. “No Mom.” She answered.

Her mother lowered the candle so Audrey could see her. “There seems to be a large blackout.” Her mother told her. “Your dad and a few of the neighbors are trying to call the power company to see what’s wrong but for some reason, not even our phones are working.”

Audrey frowned. The blackout took out more than just the electrical system. It also killed any device that was battery powered and it killed the power to every vehicle by the sound of it. What kind of blackout could do that? She turned to her door. Her ears perked up as she heard more whinnying. “Do you hear that?” She asked her mom.

Her mother shook her head. “Audrey, there’s no power here.” She reminded her daughter. “I doubt I’ll be able to hear anything except for the two of us unless we go outside.” She turned and started walking to the staircase.

Audrey looked at her mom briefly before she turned back to her door. Why couldn’t her mother hear the horse but she could? This was just getting too weird for her. She went back to her bedroom and up to her window. She opened it and looked outside. She could still hear a few people outside trying to work on their vehicles and trying to call the power company. She then heard the horse whinnying more. She looked in its direction and her eyes widened with what she saw. There were two glowing pale green eyes and a red curve above the eyes. The disturbing part was that it looked like the eyes were looking towards her.

Audrey closed her window quickly and rushed out of her room. She ran to where her mom was. She hoped that she would be safer with her mom. She had no idea what it was that she saw outside and she had a feeling that she didn’t really want to know what it was either. It crept her out greatly.

Down the street from Audrey’s home, the Horseman of Death was staring at Audrey’s home. After all of those years, he would finally do what he was supposed to do all of those years ago. He would finally get rid of the girl. He raised his scythe and started riding towards the house. No one noticed him. He had used magic to shield himself from everyone there. The blackout did help him get though. He saw everyone there. They were too busy trying to get their vehicles working and trying to call the power companies. He was getting closer and closer to his target when he was thrown back.

The Horseman of Death fell off of his horse and onto his back. His horse whinnied loudly. “I can’t let you go after the child.” The Horseman of Death looked at the one who had spoken. It was Gabriel. The top of his staff was glowing brightly.

The Horseman of Death stood up and pointed at him. “You shall not stop me from completing my mission.” He told Gabriel. “Fifteen years ago you tried to stop me and you will still fail.”

Gabriel shook his head. “No Horseman.” He replied. “I shall stop you from taking this girl out of this world.” He pointed his staff at the Horseman of Death. “And you shall be defeated.”

The Horseman of Death got back on his horse and pointed his scythe at Gabriel. “And how will you defeat me this time?” He asked mockingly. “After all, I am death itself. You cannot kill me completely. All you can do is delay me.”

Gabriel raised his staff and the bottom of it glowed the same as the top. “I can do more than delay you.” He told the Horseman of Death. “I can stop you from killing Audrey.” With that, his staff glowed even brighter until it was as bright as the sun. Gabriel closed his eyes tightly to avoid the brightness but he didn’t leave his spot. He had to weaken the Horseman of Death.

The Horseman of Death tried to shield him from the light. This was why he had killed the power to this part of the city. So there wouldn’t be any light to hinder him from killing the girl. His horse whinnied loudly.

From within her home, Audrey could see the bright light through a window. Her eyes widened as it revealed what had been glowing. The eyes of a horse and the blade of what looked like a curved weapon. The holder of the curved weapon was trying to shield themselves from the blinding light. She quickly looked away to avoid being blinded.

The light died down. Gabriel lowered his staff and opened his eyes. The power was returning to that part of the city. He had weakened the Horseman of Death greatly. He looked at the Horseman of Death. The Horseman of Death’s uniform was smoking. His scythe was bright red and looked too hot to touch. The horse whinnied and backed away a bit. The Horseman of Death looked up at Gabriel. “This isn’t over.” He said in a terrible voice. “You shall pay for what you have done to me.” He was about to attack when he saw that his spell over the people on the street was broken. There were people on their phones staring at him. Some of them were coming out of their homes with guns.

He glared at Gabriel. “We shall settle this later when I am at full strength and can take on this little army.” He glared at the people who were grouping up against him before he galloped away. The fog, coldness and darkness followed him as he disappeared into the night.

Gabriel sighed with relief. He wasn’t sure if that plan would have worked. He looked at the mob forming. He knew that he had better get out of there before he was attacked or accused of being a threat to them. He quickly disappeared into thin air.

Audrey sighed with relief as the power came back on in their home. “Mom, the power is back on!” She cried excitedly.

Her mother joined her. “I’m sure your father will be relieved that he doesn’t have to walk all the way to the power company to ask them to fix whatever was wrong.” She told her daughter. Audrey nodded before she looked out the window to the street. She could see quite a few people out there under the street lights. She wondered if they had all planned to go to the power company.

Her dad then came in. “The power is back on.” Audrey told him. Her father nodded but didn’t say anything. Audrey frowned. She had a feeling that she knew what was wrong. “Dad?” She asked. “What is it?”

Her father shook his head. “It’s nothing Audrey.” He said, forcing a smile. “How about you go back upstairs and do whatever it was you were doing before the power went out. Your mom and I need to talk.”

Audrey nodded. “Yes Father.” She went upstairs.

Audrey’s mom then came in. “What is it Josh?” She asked.

Josh looked at her. “You won’t believe what a few of us just saw outside Veronica.” He told her. Audrey’s mom sat down and they started talking.

Upstairs, Audrey was at the top of the stairs, listening to her parents talk. So her father had seen the horseback rider and the man facing each other too. She realized that her dad hadn’t seen her looking out the window at the two. She wondered if her mother would tell her dad about hearing the horse whinnying. She also wondered if she should tell them that she felt like the horseback rider had been there for her or not. That might just make them worry more about her but she couldn’t deny that feeling. She felt like he had been there for her. The question was why though.