Halloween

Halloween and the Coven was ready to conjure their dark arts. The thirteen had been texting back and forth all month long among themselves. All of them had reached the required age to perform this event. Groups of three were assigned out of twelve, the high priestess was the coordinator to lead the final outcome.

The gothic mansion was at the end of an baseline road. It had been built in the later 1500’s by a courtesan of the Spanish court, Oscuro Torre. The Torre’s maintained a stark presence in the house for all their years till the disappearance. They had maintained a ominous presence in St. Augustine till The Hain's took it over.

The Englishman, Sam Hain, had arrived to the area to settle with his family and start a new group to worship the dark arts along with Betty, the master’s familiar, a snowshoe, who spoke several languages, including English, Spanish, German, French as well as a basic understanding of Arabic. Sam and his family had escaped Europe on a Chartered ship, Star of Circo, out the port of Marseille.

The captain had been paid well to be discreet about the passengers of this journey, for if they were discovered to be one of few cultists escaping from Marseille it could mean trouble of the overboard type.

The Star of Circo had made port in St. Augustine in 1881 and the family had disembarked to a vacant mansion by carriage that had just become on the market due to the mysterious disappearance of the owners. There were rumors that the house was haunted or possessed by a tenacious evil spirit, who ruled the area.

The Coven of Hain survived the wars, hurricanes and thrived over the years, protected by the their wits and magic.

October of 2003 a year after 9/11 and the sadness was deafening, it was imperative to use the dark energy for good. Last year they had been successful turning lead into gold, the alchemists dream. Turning lead into gold had been a triumphant success, but they had to keep quiet about it, if the normal folk found out about it who knows what a nightmare that would be. They had conjured up so much Gold they had to buy a private vault business to store it. It would be time travel and slipping into the consciousness of space and time for this special mission.

The priestess had made dry runs without any problems just to make sure the ceremony was performed with the correct result. This was to be time travel with four separate groups, four separate excursions, four outcomes. Very dangerous. A few of group might be trapped in time or vaporized floating in a paradox. The return trip was to be supervised by the High Priestess, direct descendant of the Hain family. Her name was Gisela. Priestess Gisela had spent the last few years studying the procedure using the philosophers stone to turn lead into gold, now it must be used for time travel to avoid the dangerous historic errors foretold in the red crystal.

The Crystal was discovered in Egypt during the Carter Tutankhamen excavation. It was a Red round crystal ball, with a iridescent glow in the dark. One of the workers on the dig absconded with the gem unknown to Carter. He never knew of it's existence. A buyer was found quickly but as soon as the Ball was sold the seller met a unfortunate death during a robbery for the money of the sale. A cheap dagger though the heart bought from the bazaar and was left in his chest. The red crystal had brought the later Hains great wealth by predicting world events. It could be temperamental. For years it would sit in an dormant bluish state, then all of a sudden turn glowing red and start displaying world events like a video screen. World leaders, nations to war, disasters all things were predicted some happened and others didn't. It had been set in the library of the old mansion in front of a large upholstered wingback chair on a basalt pedestal. The centerpiece of the room. A mysterious orb of future events with a mind of it's own.

The High Priestess gathered the group in the library, conducting the preflight briefing, if all went well they would be gathered together toasting champagne 48 hours from now. Traveling through time is not easy like Movie makers make it to be. Traveling back 100's of years was quicker because time had adjusted to the ocean of events. Traveling forward was an assault to one's body. Waves of resistance of the unknown plummeted the traveler through a gauntlet of pain. Then the actual time of travel going back was half the time going forward. Janelle had discussed this with the travelers and some of them had been on a previous journey before as a test run to find out the stress involved. The first and second group were ready. Third and fourth were to standby awaiting their departure.

Gisela must open up the portal, using the crystal. Bending the door of space and time into the past allowing the participants to slip through to their destinations. Groups one and two, were ready as Gisela touched the red ball, a crack of gold light opened from the ball and filled the room with a door way of light. The Priestess asked it to send and return the group 1 at a specific time. She proceeded to send the second group through. Gisela waited a while to send #3 and #4 as they were both mixed groups of men and women. These last two had prepared to complete the missions if 1 and 2 couldn’t do their assigned roles along with their own missions.

The first group arrived on 9/10 in Boston at 0600 hours in Boston Common Park a little disoriented and head achy. Searched the area for overnight accommodations. Group 2 arrived 30 minutes later and proceeded with the plan to find lodging.

Group 4 landed at Military Park in Newark at 0700. Group 3 landed near a vacant field north of runway 30 near Washington Dulles 0800.

By researching the details of the attack, photos of the Hijackers and visits to the area in the present time, all the groups were prepared for the missions. Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi were the two pilots of Flight 11 and 175 respectively. The two groups knew who to look for and had practiced the dry runs multiple times conducting drills at the airports in current time. All groups had two jet injectors each loaded with disabling agent, and lethal concentrated nightshade enough to kill a stable full of horses. The pilots would be dead. The rest of the attackers would be outed using the PA system with distributed photos and calls to the FBI.

The attackers from Boston Logan were dispatched easily. Flights 11 and 175 were safe. The injections had been released just as both pilots had exited from the restrooms while the other were distracted by one of the party screaming at them to go back to their country. Both missions had exited and taken cabs back to their departure points to wait.

The Washington Dulles group had arrived early but the terrorists slipped by them on their way to boarding. One of the Men of the group caught sight of the pilot, Hani Hanjour as he made his way entering the restrooms, there was a struggle but Hani died on the floor while the witch laid bleeding out with his throat open.

The terrorists of Flight 93 had lingered and stayed close to each other almost protecting the pilot Ziad Jarrah. They had received one text message from the Dulles group to be vigilant of a attack on them before they entered the plane. Suspicious, heads and eyes moving about, it would be difficult to inject the pilot. The Newark International group made the decision to follow the terrorists on the plane for they had already purchased tickets for that contingency. Boarding passes in hand and seating assigned near the pilot. They followed the hijackers on the plane. Cleverly the hijackers had changed their seating to be together near the cockpit away from the witches. The smallest crew of all the terrorists. Four including the pilot it was more dangerous now that they had entered the plane. The rest of the lives of the passengers were now at risk. The plane moved to pushoff. They would have to move quickly. The hijackers moved at once to take over the cockpit. In a fight with one of the protectors the witch fell injected along the terrorist. Both were dead. The cockpit breached and Ziah Jarrad in control as pilot. The witches knew who ask for help, Mark Bingham 6’5” a athlete, Jeremy Glick martial arts expert, Debby Welsh senior flight attendant. Nothing seemed to work. Flight 93 was doomed it’s fate sealed in time. The Coven tried twice more but it’s fate ended in the same outcome. I don’t know if it changed history or created a paradox. Four of their group lost on this trip back in time another 8 in the later tries. With the Coven gone Priestess Gisela decided to hold off on trying anymore excursions into the past, It might be better to think about moving forward into the future, since it was unknown. To view the future through the Sphere like Nostradamus seemed like a safer way to travel.