100. Conjuring

"She fell down the stairs," was the first reply that came to Alex's mind when the nurse asked her about Emily.

They all teleported to the hospital and Emily was admitted. There were far fewer people and staff in the hospital than there were when they last visited there. The good news was that nothing harmful happened to Emily but the bad news was that her recovery will take time but time was the only thing they were running out of.

"Don't worry about me," Emily smiled lying on her hospital bed, "It'd be a matter of time when I feel alright but don't stop because of me."

"You are important more than anything, Emily," Clyde smiled at her, and Ryan and Helena followed him.

"That was a brave thing you did back there," Emily shifted her gaze to Alex, "Helena told me how you knocked John unconscious. Thank you,"

"Don't, you'd have done the same thing for me." Alex squeezed her hands before getting up.

"Now all we need to find is," Ryan said, "what the number stands for and we'd have the final piece in our hands."

- - - - - - -

The four of them waited outside for nearly half a minute as the doctor ran a final test on Emily and when the nurses and the doctor left the room, they went inside to see how Emily was feeling now.

"Any luck finding out about 4623?" Emily asked Clyde, Helena, and Ryan and saw Alex entering the room behind them.

"Alex, what's that?" Emily's eyes fell upon a page sticking out of Alex's pocket.

Alex followed Emily's gaze and so did Ryan, Helena, and Clyde.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I think I may have solved the mystery which is keeping us from the third stone."

"What is it?" Delighted, Clyde asked but soon realized that she couldn't hear him, "Ugh,"

Emily giggled looking at a frustrated Clyde and then asked Alex, "What do you mean?"

"When I was searching for the kitchen to drink water, Diana's pawns came out of nowhere and started attacking me but I wasn't going down without a fight. But three against one was an unfair combination to win against and they ended up tying me against the bedpost.

But when they were doing that, I saw a page sticking out of the bedside drawer. Call it a curious human mind, but when the three of them, weren't looking, I scooted to get near the page and tried to get it from my mouth as my hands and legs were tied.

I had to be very careful not to rip the page apart or draw any attention towards me. It took a few tries but I was successful. The page fell on the floor and with me tied legs, I managed to pull it towards me. Before I even had the chance to see what it said, a girl came and duct-taped my mouth. But thank God they didn't close my mouth before."

"What was on that page that grabbed your attention in the first place, Alex?"

"As I was sitting there on the floor, I saw something written on the page - printed on the page with black ink. I tried to ignore it at first thinking maybe it could be a document that belonged to the Jacksons but when I squinted my eyes to focus on what was written on it, after what I saw it was hard to unsee it or leave the paper there.

I saw some numbers printed on it. Now it could be any random number, I know, but something in my heart was just not ready to forget about the paper.

After you untied me, I picked up the paper and was about to read it to find what my intuition was telling me all along, John came and well, you know the rest.

While the doctor and the nurses were checking you, I read what was written in the paper and you won't believe what it was,"

"What?" Emily asked looking at Alex's eyes which were all lit up from excitement.

Alex showed Emily the paper. Emily gave it a look and said, "I don't know, Alex, it could be true but it could also be just nothing."

"But do we have any other option to explore?" Alex asked back. She was adamant and there was a surety in her voice which made Ryan ask, "What is she talking about, Emily?"

"This is Aunt Petunia's death paper," Emily began scanning the page once again, "It has the details of where she is buried and other stuff."

"And?" Helena asked looking at Emily.

"Every grave is given a number. Aunt Petunia's grave is 91797. That's what Alex saw."

"Emily," Alex's voice caused Emily to look at her, "remember the old saying that God helps those who help themselves? Maybe this is God's sign. He is helping us."

"I don't know," Emily said still looking at the number. "What do you guys think?" Emily looked at Ryan, Clyde, and Helena.

Ryan and Helena were thinking of something when Emily and Alex were having the conversation.

"It's true," Ryan began, "Every grave is given a number and maybe 4623 is George's."

"And!" Helena exclaimed so loud that even Emily shook a bit in her bed, "now I know why George wrote 'haze'. That smart, math brain, man. Even though he didn't use mysteries in his life, he did love one."

"What are you saying, Helena," Ryan asked looking at a victory smile of hers.

"Ryan! Don't you remember the weather it was on the day George was buried?"

"We both were there, how can I not? There were... Oh, my,"

The conversation between the two of them piqued the interests of Emily and Clyde causing Clyde to ask, "What happened that day?"

"There was haze everywhere that week before, during, and even after George's death when he was being buried."

Emily explained what she heard to Alex to which Alex replied, "See, I told you,"

"It's time to pay our friend a little visit," Helena smiled.

- - - - - - -

After waiting for a few hours for Emily to get better, they all teleported to the cemetery where George was buried.

Alex's intuition was spot on. Like they say, sometimes your gut feeling defies all the logic that your brain can comprehend. Well, that was something Emily lived by.

Instead of names and dates on a headstone, every grave had a cross, stabbed to the ground, and on top of every cross, there were numbers. The cross and the numbers took the hit of the weather of several years but they still could make something out of it.

All got split up in order to find George's grave fast with the number 4623 on the cross.

They searched and searched. The cemetery was spread into a vast area but they weren't giving up. They were this close to finding out the third piece.

And then suddenly, they all heard Alex's scream, "Found it!" Rushing towards the sound they saw the cross with the number 4623 on it. Now all they needed was a tool to dig out the body and the coffin.

"George's house is not too far from here and I think that maybe the house still has the shovels provided if nobody took it. We used to dig up holes for fun when we were kids with those shovels. I'll be right back."

As they were waiting for Helena, Emily and Alex felt like criminal thinking about digging up a grave to wake the corpse up from its long sleep in its coffin. It felt like they were about to do something illegal but they didn't have any other choice.

George's last words in his letter -

'There are many things that I wish I could tell you but some secrets are better left unsaid. I'm taking it with me for the sake of the people.'

- could only mean one thing that he had taken it - the final piece with him. It had to be. What else could he possibly be talking about? But if the coffin was opened and if there wasn't any stone, then there would be no hope at all.

Helena returned with the shovels and they all began to dig up the grave. Even though Emily and Alex hadn't dug a grave before and even if they would've, they would've never thought that one day, they would be digging up the soil just to open the years old coffin. Even though it felt all so new but wrong, they couldn't deny a psychotic rush that ran through their veins. None of them had seen a corpse in the coffin after years and years of it being inside the coffin. They wondered what it could be like. But after 100 years and more, it would come as no surprise to them if they didn't find out the body.

After hours and hours, they finally hit something hard with their shovels. Excited that it could be the coffin, their speed of digging got increased even though their arms were swelling. And soon after a surface what appeared to be of a coffin met their eyes.

They carefully and slowly opened the coffin and saw nothing but teeth and some nylon threads which they assumed to be of the clothes George must be wearing that day. And there was one more thing in that coffin which made all their hearts overjoyed - the third, and the final piece of the cursed emerald stone which was still attached to the heart-shaped pendant with embedded diamonds. The pendant had two empty spaces where the other two emerald stones belonged to.

Emily carefully picked it up and placed it in her pocket.

They put the coffin back and put the dirt and the soil on top of it with the help of the shovels which they had displayed. They patted the shovels a few times to level out the soil.

"Finally!" Clyde couldn't contain his excitement. "Now what?"

"Now, it's time for the three stones to unite," Emily said feeling the final piece in her pocket.

"What would happen when all the pieces meet?" Alex asked looking at the relieved face of Emily.

Emily shrugged causing Alex to ask, "What? So you're telling me that none of you had any idea what could happen? Do you know how dangerous this is?"

"Alex, Hannah, John, and I don't know how to put an end to this curse when we three first started to search for the pieces but we knew that combining the stones would result in something. And even though we aren't prepared for it, I know together, we'll face it."

"Together?" Alex replied sarcastically with concern, "Look around Emily. It's only you, me, and the three ghosts. No offense but I don't think that we can take Diana down just by ourselves. Have you seen how powerful she is?"

"Well, first of all," Emily began, "Father Murphy is with us and second of all, yes, we all are well aware of what she could do. But there was no other way. Father had told us that he had tried to defeat her in the past but wasn't completely successful. He never found out the third piece and now we know exactly why. Trust me, Alex, think about your sister and your parents who had to face the wrath of Diana. Don't let this go now. We need you. The more the better."

"Don't get me wrong, Emily, I'm not backing out, but all I'm saying is that comparing Diana and the army of her pawns with us - just a bunch of kids - is nothing that says a sure win."

"She's right," Clyde said with a mischievous smile as he looked towards Helena and Ryan. Clearly, the three were onto something. "We can't take her down alone,"

"And that's why we need backup," Helena replied reflecting the same mischievous smile.

"What are you two saying?" Emily asked looking baffled.

Looking at Emily, Ryan said, "It's time to join forces."

Ryan closed his eyes as Helena instructed the kids to step back.

All four of them could slowly feel changes in their surroundings like the trees, the ground, the sky, the cemetery, - all shrinking and slowly going away with the time stopped.

Emily, Alex, Helena, and Clyde could see a small ball of light in front of Ryan which slowly began to grow bigger and bigger till it covered him up entirely.

Ryan stepped back and asked Helena and Clyde to join him. Emily and Alex just stood there amazed at whatever was going on in front of them. They were terrified of the unknown that was about to happen but Emily trusted the three and Alex trusted Emily.

It seemed to them like a portal has been opened up to some other dimension. The girls stood there as Emily watched Helena, Clyde, and Ryan closing their eyes and reciting something. Whatever they were doing, the portal was growing bigger radiating a blue soothing light.

The three encircled around the portal and began focusing their energy on the portal.

In no time, they all could see some silhouettes walking towards them through the portal. There wasn't one or two silhouettes, but slowly it felt like hundreds of shadows and silhouettes were marching towards them.

One by one, unfamiliar faces began emerging from the portal.

The ground beneath them began shaking too as spirits of the dead buried in the cemetery rose and joined the spirits coming from the portal.

The sight of the conjuring was mortifying and yet inspiring at the same time.

Clyde, Helena, and Ryan slowly opened their eyes as the portal began to slowly die down. There were hundreds and hundreds of spirits around them.

And even though Emily thought that as Alex couldn't see Ryan, Clyde, or Helena, how could she possibly see the spirits that have been conjured up? But she was proved wrong when she heard Alex's cries of joy, "Mom! Dad! Olivia! I can see you! I really missed you!" Alex ran to give a hug but got disappointed and sad when she realized that she couldn't hug her family anymore.

While the Willows were having a moment, Clyde addressed the spirits, "You all have been conjured up from our realm to end the chapter of evil for good. Would you all join forces to help fight Diana?"

Hearing the name of Diana was enough to start the murmurs. But Helena grabbed their attention saying, "I know, we all know that we are up against the most feared spirit. But if we all are together, there's nothing that could come in our way. There's one against thousands of us. If we all are together, she can't harm us. We will find a way to counter her and her pawns. Now, who's with us to end the devil and the curse for good?"

"Yeah!" Echoed the sound of thousands of spirits in the air - all wanting one thing.