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December 12

Upper West Side, Manhattan

The Time Keeper hurried along the sidewalk, slipping on the icy ground as he craned his neck to scan behind him. Nothing but grumpy New Yorkers on a Monday morning. But there was someone else there. He felt it. Someone was following him.

He jostled past a swarm of commuters emptying out of a subway stop and bumped into another horde waiting to cross 11th Avenue. Heart thumping in his chest, he looked over his shoulder again. Was it from fear or because he’d run all the way from Central Park? He couldn’t tell. Time was running out.

Pushing forward to the front of the crowd at the lights, he stepped onto the street. A yellow cab honked angrily, skidding as the driver braked hard, missing him by mere inches. He didn’t notice. He plowed forward, moving toward the shiny lights of Times Square.

Days of searching had turned up no leads. It was as if the entire family had disappeared. Things weren’t going as he had planned. At least the first clue was now in place, and maybe the message he sent to Drake in desperation would produce something. Drake was a good man, he was told. I can’t fail now. We’ve waited for this for thousands of years.

Shivering, he pulled his threadbare jacket across his chest and hurried down the street with new resolve. Fresh flakes of snow attacked his face as he arrived at the shabby little hotel he was staying at on the fringe of Times Square. He fidgeted as the rickety elevator clanked and groaned toward the ground floor. It stopped somewhere above him. Someone else must be getting in. Impatient, he gave up and took the stairs to his sixth-floor room.

Slamming the door shut, he held out his palm near the brass lock. A gray cloud of mist formed, and as he flicked his wrist, the mist worked its way into the keyhole. He tugged on the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

The room was dingy and smelled of mildew, but at least it was warm and gave him some time to think. From the inside of his coat, he pulled out an intricate golden hourglass and looked at it with a furrowed brow. A thin stream of fine black sand poured down from the top half of the hourglass. There wasn’t much left. He put it back in his jacket with a sigh and looked out the dirty window. Outside, the steely gray sky pressed down on Manhattan. The blizzard had arrived earlier than expected.

A soft thud made the Time Keeper swing around. The door was still closed. But the light flickered erratically, and he reluctantly gazed up at the ceiling. Breath seemed to disappear from his lungs.

An enormous creature, somewhere between a lizard and a human, hung upside down on all fours, its hideous bulging red eyes set squarely on him. He staggered backward and fell against the desk.

The creature released its hands, then its feet, dropping onto the floor silently, never letting the Time Keeper out of its gaze. Its scaly gray body seemed to stretch and blur into a haze as it moved. Slimy saliva dripped from its yellow fangs. He watched in horror as it straightened up, the mist swirling to form a cloak around it.

So this is how it ends. There was no doubt in his mind. This was the same hideous thing from all those years ago. Out of its cloak, only the face emerged, skeletal with leathery skin stretched taut over the bones. It could hardly be called human, its face stretched out of proportion with sharp canine teeth and red reptilian eyes. The same sickening fear churned in his stomach. Eleven years ago, he had not seen it so close.

“Nowhere to run this time,” hissed a raspy voice. “It ends here.”

“H-h-how did you find me?”

“An Obsidian in New York…asking about a girl that no one seems to know about. I have ears here too.”

“She’s n-not here anymore,” stammered the Time Keeper, hoping against hope that this fiend would believe him.

“We’ll soon find out.” The figure extended its withered hand and picked up the hotel phone from the table. “Call the authorities.”

The Time Keeper hesitated.

“Call the authorities,” it repeated. “Or her death will be more excruciating than you can possibly imagine.” 

Fingers trembling, the Time Keeper dialed 9-1-1. He didn’t know how this whole thing worked. He had only heard about it.

“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?”

“Say that there has been a murder in this room,” whispered the figure.

The Time Keeper dropped the phone.

The creature picked it up off the floor with a hideous smile. “There’s been a murder. The Vista Hotel, room 66.”

The Time Keeper huddled against the wall, shaking. This terror had plagued them for thousands of years. The one hope they had was now in mortal danger. “Who are you? What do you want from us?”

The creature opened its hand to reveal a small vial. “First, I need the map. Let’s see if this will flush out both it and the girl.” It uncapped the vial, and a silvery smoke crept up from it.

The Time Keeper turned away, shuddering as the figure held out the vial for him. “You tried. You slipped through my fingers last time. How long did you think it would last?”

The Time Keeper defiantly looked the creature in its eyes. “She is the heir. She will finish you.”

The figure curled its lips into a smile. “And how will she do that? A helpless little thing.” The figure clamped onto the Time Keeper’s neck with one hand and forced the vial to his nose. The silver smoke crept up into his nostrils. His struggling limbs went limp, and he collapsed onto the floor, writhing in pain. “You really don’t know what the blood moon prophecy is…do you? She doesn’t either, and there’s no one to help her. Not anymore.”

The creature ripped open the Time Keeper’s sleeve. A scaly, clawed finger traced letters onto the flesh of his arm. Each letter glowed as if branded onto the skin, making the Time Keeper wince.

“She took everything from me. She stole it.” The creature spat the words with such emotion and hate, it shocked the Time Keeper, even in his agony. “Everything you know…everything you’ve been told is a lie. I will raise the Alchemist, and I will get back what’s mine. I will destroy her just as she destroyed everything that ever meant anything to me.”

Then, without another word, the creature turned and walked out of the room.

The Time Keeper’s head spun. His eyes wouldn’t focus. There wasn’t much time left. The potion would do its work swiftly. The girl was in grave danger.

The secret that he carried could not die with him. After thousands of years of waiting, it could not end like this. 

He hauled himself up onto the rickety chair, gritting his teeth as pain shot through his bones. Feeling around frantically, he dragged down the hotel notepad and a cheap plastic pen. He started scribbling. Outside, he heard sirens, faint but growing louder.

His breath grew ragged. His vision blurred. He wrote, not knowing if his words made any sense. Then suddenly, the pen fell from his hand and he collapsed on the floor.