135. THE END!

One month later. Demetria was ready to leave the sacred mountain. "Are you nervous?" she asked. Clarice nodded her head. "Yes, a bit. I'm used to having you here, so it would be hard to see you gone. I hope you will stay a little bit longer..." she said wistfully. Demetria smiled and patted her successor's hands, comforting her. "Don't be nervous, everything will be alright. I served long enough as the guardian of this mountain. It's about time for me to retire and pursue other things." "OK. I understand," Clarice responded, teary-eyed. "The magical book in my room. You can read it to gain more understanding of your powers. There are so many things you can do to improve your powers. So many things to explore on every page of that book. You will be amazed at how powerful you are. I only limit myself to powers that I think would benefit me greatly, as for the rest, I think they are no longer important, and I consider them as excessive. So it's up to you if you apply them all or not. Feel free to explore the book. That book will become your mentor after I'm gone," Demetria said. Clarice hugged her mentor. "Thank you so much for saving my life and for choosing me as your successor. I'm super blessed to have met you in my life. I will never forget you," she said gratefully, feeling emotional. Demetria rubbed Clarice's back gently. "It's my pleasure to meet you as well. I'm glad destiny sent you to me to be trained and become my successor. In your hands I'm confident my legacy will continue, and this sacred mountain is guarded well when I'm gone." They looked into each other's eyes and smiled. "I'm sorry I've been busy with my family lately, and I wasn't able to go with you on your missions to help Martha and her team," Clarice apologized sincerely. "It's okay, no need to apologize. As for Martha, the phone I used to communicate with her is in the drawer on my table in my room. I have already told her that you are different from me. You are married with kids and a husband, busy with family life, and might not be interested in continuing my legacy, so she must not expect much from you. If one day you decide to help her, it's up to you. As for the gold and jewelry inside the treasure room, it's all yours. Use them for your needs," Demetria added. "OK, copy. Anything else?" Clarice asked, taking mental note of everything. "The core needs your blood once a week. You need to check the hibernation chambers and make sure everything looks the same and ignore the sightings trying to trick you. You have to visit and stay here at least two or three hours a day to check on everything. It's important that the core can feel your presence so it continues to function normally every day. Remember, your blood is the life force of the core that holds this sacred house and mountain together," Demetria reminded her. "And what if I suddenly die one day? What's going to happen to this house and the vampire monsters inside their hibernation chamber?" Clarice asked curiously. "No guardian has died before. As a vampire you can live for a long time, until you choose your next successor to continue your legacy," Demetria answered. "But what if one day I accidentally die? What's going to happen?" Clarice insisted on getting the answer. "This house and mountain will self-destruct and some monsters will also perish along with you, but others may survive. I don't know how many will survive, but the majority of them will die along with you," Demetria finally gave a clear answer. "So, if one day I feel that I'm going to die, should I choose my next successor before my death comes?" Clarice asked. "Yes, choose one of your children, or it could be anyone you think deserves to be your successor. We are complete strangers to each other, but I still choose you as my successor. Anyone can be the guardian of this mountain as long as they are chosen by fate and sent to you for training. You will know if you meet that person," Demetria explained. "Ah, okay, I got it," Clarice said, nodding his head. "I created a master's list of all the things you have to do for this house and all your responsibilities so you won't miss a thing. I put it in the drawer beside the phone. Feel free to read it every day. The difference between us is you are a married woman, and you have a lot of things to do and think about, so you needed the list more than I do. As for me, I'm single, so I'm more focused on my job as the guardian. The master's list is important to remind you of your responsibility to this place. Do you understand?" Demetria said. "Yes, I understand," Clarice responded with a smile. "Alright, I'll be leaving in one hour. See you before I go. I'm going to my room first to get my stuff and bid farewell to the core," Demetria said. "OK. Take your time," Clarice replied. Demetria climbed the staircase and went to her room on the third floor. One hour later, the two women can be seen standing outside the house as they bid farewell to each other. "I'm going now. Take care of yourself and take care of this mountain for me," Demetria said, her eyes gleaming, excited to meet her family again. Sadness flickered in Clarice's eyes. "Now that you are leaving me, I feel scared. I'm beginning to doubt if I can do it," she said, tears glistening in her eyes. Demetria patted her shoulder. "Of course you can do it. Believe in yourself." "Thanks," Clarice responded with a smile. "I'll go now. I'm afraid that if I don't leave now you will beg me to stay," Demetria joked. Clarice grinned. "Enjoy your retirement." "I will. Bye!" Demetria waved her hand at Clarice and disappeared into the night. "Byeeee!" Clarice was still waving her hand even if Demetria was long gone. Clarice returned to the house and locked the door. She roamed her eyes around the house which became her second home. She went to Demetria's room and checked the master's list of all the things she needed to do inside the house. Tomorrow she will feed the core with her blood. On Thursday she will check the vampires in the hibernation chambers. On Saturday she will visit the vampire headquarters in her invisible form to spy on the people there. Her eyes landed on the phone, staring at it for a few minutes. The communication device that connects Demetria to Martha will make her busier. Should she give Martha a call to introduce herself as Demetria's successor? She shakes her head. Nah, she is not ready yet to become a hero. Not now, maybe in the future. Family first before anything else! She closed the drawer and was about to leave the room. The phone suddenly rang. She picked it up and quickly read Martha's text message. It said urgent. 'Please help us. The entire St. Patrick Public School was being held hostage by hundreds of terrorists. They planted bombs in all the classrooms. They will blow up the entire school along with the children, teachers and school staff if the current president of the country doesn't blow up his head in front of live television. The total headcount inside the school is more than three thousand. Only one hour left to defuse the bomb. There are estimated to be a hundred terrorists inside the school. Our snipers can't get a clear shot. Once all the bombs explode, the casualties are horrific.' The second message contains the exact location of the school. Damn! She doesn't need this! Clarice groaned. She only has a few minutes to think about what to do. She only had one hour before everything blew up. She picked up the phone, made herself invisible and teleported to the location of the school situated in the city. The moment she arrived at St. Patrick School hovering in the air, the gate was already swarmed with police officers, media covering the hostage situation, curious onlookers and families of the children and school staff. She needs to act quickly if she wants to save lives. She zoomed towards the entrance of the school and entered the first room. She located the ticking bomb and froze everyone inside, including the terrorist. She did the same in all the rooms. Finally, she arrived in the room for the staff. Inside, she saw five armed terrorists wearing face masks and ten terrified staff down on the floor. The armed men were facing the television, watching the country's president talking to the media. She froze everyone in the room and located the bomb. She dares not remove the bomb because she has no knowledge of it. Removing one bomb might cause the whole school to explode. The terrorists are ready to die. One mistake on her part will trigger an explosion. She wielded her power, dressing herself in a black costume, complete with a face mask covering her entire face. She entered the room and made herself visible to the visibly shaken staff. "Guys, listen carefully! Time is running out. I want you to enter each classroom and instruct the children to leave the room in a calm manner. Don't worry about the terrorists, they are frozen. I froze them so they couldn't hurt anyone. Now move!" she ordered urgently. The principal poked at the armed guy's legs standing beside him. He was not responding, frozen in time like a statue. "The terrorist is not moving!" he exclaimed. He addressed the terrified staff, looking into their eyes. "Alright, let's do it fast. Let's bring many children to safety as fast as we can before the bomb explodes!" he barked his order. The terrified staff member scrambled out of the room and ran to the classrooms, ordering the children to follow them calmly out of the room, while Clarice was already ahead of them, unfreezing the children in each of the rooms, being careful not to unfreeze the terrorist and the bomb or else chaos would ensue. Outside, spectators were shocked to see children pouring out of the school's entrance and running towards the gate, visibly shaken with tears in their eyes. The police authorities sprang into action, putting the children to safety. The last to leave the school were the principal, the school staff and the guards. Clarice called Martha on the phone and informed her that she had frozen the terrorists about a hundred of them scattered around the school. Martha instructed the bomb disposal unit to enter the school premises to begin their task of locating the bombs. She and her team entered the classrooms to arrest the terrorist. Clarice couldn't leave yet, fearing that one mistake could end everything. She followed Martha's team as they entered each room, handcuffing the frozen terrorists and removing their guns. After a one-hour tense standoff between the terrorist and police personnel, the deadly situation was finally declared under control by Capt. Martha Hunskinson. Clarice texted Martha and instructed her to inform the principal and staff not to reveal her identity or else she would not appear again to help. Martha assured her that her identity would not be revealed by the staff. Satisfied with the safe outcome of the hostage crisis, Clarice was proud of herself for acting quickly. She left the area in high spirits, heading home to be with her family. Her heroic journey has just begun. ~~~The End~~~