Mara did not come out of the cellar for the rest of the day after that. As he promised he would, Matthias immediately took the leather-bound book to the backyard and burned it with the compost. He did not take his eyes off it until the last flames had died down and each and every piece of parchment was rendered to ash. That would be the end of it, he kept telling himself.
Alyra had been watching curiously from the garden. "What was that?" she asked as Matthias began heading back to the cottage.
"Don't worry about it," was all he could answer with.
Alyra let out a sigh, showing a hint of frustration. "Did you talk to Mara?"
"I took care of it," Matthias responded, not wanting to keep his mind on any of this. "We won't have to worry about this anymore."
Adea's heart was racing in her chest. What Lyda could be talking about, she had no idea, but any hope of putting a stop to these relentless nightmares was good enough for her. Adea jumped out of her bed almost immediately after Lyda had left the room. She hurried to the wardrobe they shared next to the doorway and pulled out the fur jacket she wore during the colder seasons. Lyda told her to meet her outside, so it seemed wise to wear something warm.It was at that moment that Adea froze where she stood. She could not help but question why Lyda could not do what she wanted to do in the comfort of their cottage. Why did they need to go outside in the cold? The more she thought about it, however, the more she began to resent being alone in the darkness of their room.Adea threw on her coat and stepped outside her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She shuddere
Lyda guided her toward the narrow path that cut through the brush. She moved faster than she had the last time she was here, knowing exactly where to go, but Adea was dragging her feet as she anxiously took in her new surroundings. She could not help but feel daunted by Lyda's apparent familiarity with this place. The deeper they traveled, the more Adea got the overwhelming urge to turn around and run, but Lyda had a firm grip on her hand. A strange pressure was weighing down on her, much like the pressure she felt in her chest the previous night just before she woke."Lyda, wait!" Adea whimpered, finally losing her cool. "I don't wanna do this. Something feels wrong."Lyda shot her sister a look of disbelief. "We can't turn back now! Come on." She tugged Adea toward her, but she continued to resist. "You promised."
Returning to her side, Adea was standing before the most peculiar and unnerving sight she had ever seen. In a small opening in the brush, a series of small stone slabs were standing perched in a circular pattern. There were seven of them, and they were positioned around a cleared space that looked large enough to fit a full-grown person. Just outside the circle of stones, there were three larger slabs perched the same way evenly spaced apart from one another. She looked over at Lyda, whose face was lit up with excitement."Do you know what this is?" Lyda said, more to herself than to Adea. "I think this is the site where the ritual was performed by our ancestors!""This is where we're supposed to do it?" Adea trembled."I think so. Come on!" She pulled Adea into the circle of stones. They both sat down in the middle
1875"You must swear that you will never tell another soul what we did here tonight. Swear it on your life."Those words made Adea shudder from the moment she heard them that night at the Crossing, and she feared she may never get over it. She found herself in the most complex situation an eight-year-old child might encounter. Her bad dreams lasted for weeks after they began, but it only took a matter of days for them to escalate into the fits of pure fear that they became. She was desperate to stop them once and for all, but what good was Human intervention against something they could not see, hear, or feel? Yet somehow, in spite of everything, her older sister, Lyda, found a way.Adea was not sure what was more horrific; the night terrors, or the actions the two of them took to end them. Ever since they could speak, Lyda and Ade
Matthias was beyond ashamed. He could not believe that he never saw this coming. Mara had been depressed for years but she never showed any abnormal signs that might hint at thoughts of suicide. Matthias placed a hand over her forehead and used his thumb to gently lift her right eyelid. As expected, her pupil was dilated and did not react to the candlelight around the bed, and as he feared, the color of her eye, though faded, was still giving off that same unsettling shade of yellow.Matthias had many thoughts rolling through his head. It had been three years at this point since Mara had noticed the return of this sickness, but it usually faded away within the year. For it to still be affecting her, she must have been suffering all this time until she could not bear it any longer. He did not understand why she never said anything to him.While Matthias somberly
As far as Adea was concerned, there had been nothing to worry about. The brief but strange occurrence had not repeated itself when she drifted back to sleep, and by the morning, she had all but forgotten about it. That is until Lyda said something to her.It was a Saturday morning, which meant Lyda would not be going off with Iris and their mother would be taking a break from working in the garden, so Lyda and Adea were free to sleep in and do whatever they wanted today. Adea woke when the fresh smell of breakfast flowed beneath her bedroom door. Like any other free day, she did not bother to get dressed, but simply fixed her hair and headed downstairs in her nightgown.It was an ordinary morning as Adea situated herself at the table just outside of the kitchen. As usual, Lyda had been the last to join them, always coming up from the cellar looking gloomy and t
The five of them hiked through the trees and straight as they could across the ridgeline. The last of the morning fog had lifted by the time they stepped back out of the trees and the great hills of the south became visible. They called them the Dividing Mountains; an enormous, rugged mountain range that stretched east to west for many miles, separating the northern territories of Ravenna from the south. It was not often that Lyda and Adea came this far south to get a good view of the mountains, at least not on their own, and Adea was soaking it all in.The sun was nearing midday as they made their way into a clearing atop the southern ridge, following a large, running creek that flowed out of the trees and cut down into the rocky clearing before splitting off toward opposite ends of the ridgeline. Adea found it to be a stunning sight with the mountains in the distance, and they decided this was the perfec
Lyda barely spoke at all for the rest of the day. As the sun went down, Eran and Ellis gathered wood and built a fire by the tents, where they sat for the rest of the evening eating their rations, laughing amongst each other, and telling stories to scare one another. Although she remained rather quiet, Lyda seemed to be enjoying herself as much as everyone else. They were all having a great time until Lyda finally decided it was her turn to speak."I don't like these stories."Everyone else went quiet until the only sound to be heard was the crackling of the fire."Ghost stories are just meant for fun," Eran said. "They're not supposed to be scary.""I don't think they're scary," Lyda said, staring blankly into the fire. "I think stories that aren't real are like the lig