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"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
It took Lyda's mind a few minutes to regain her full consciousness. She kept her eyes closed and took in several deep breaths, which sounded as though they were echoing all around her. When she finally opened her eyes, she looked around to see that she was still sitting by the fire, exactly where she had nodded off to sleep. The brightness of the fire seemed to be toned down, and she could no longer feel any heat coming off it. In fact, the entire environment around her appeared to be drained of much of its color. That was all the confirmation Lyda needed to know that she was no longer in the conscious world. This was a dream.Lyda stood to her feet. This was not like any of the other dreams she had made for herself thanks to the ritual. She was not like her sister. She was not as interested in the blissful dreams Adea constantly rambled on about. More than that, Adea would never have dared to enter her ow
Lyda descended for what felt like fifty feet, or more, there was no telling. The darkness at the bottom was so heavy that she could feel it in her skin. Her feet touched down in a shallow, liquid substance that sounded like water but felt much thicker and gave off a faint, rubbery smell. The voices were a bit louder but still not discernible. They came in short spates, leaving her standing in an atmosphere of pure silence otherwise."Show-" Lyda began to mutter as quietly as she could, but her voice still sounded deafening. Just like that, the voices ceased, as if made aware of her presence. It made Lyda almost too nervous to speak again, but she swallowed her fear as best as she could. "Show me something."There was a moment of silence like an eternity. Lyda's eyes were burning in anticipation. Just then, she heard another series of voices coming from be
Jay woke suddenly out of nowhere, almost as if the sun was rising, but it wasn't. She lied on her back and stared up at the low roof of the tent. It was just as dark now as it was when they had all tucked in for the night. She guessed she must have only been asleep for a couple of hours. Why then was she now wide awake?Jay looked over at Adea lying next to her, swaddled in her own blanket and out like a light. She sat up when she noticed that Lyda was not in the tent with them. Through the flap of the tent, she could see the faint, shimmering light of the last embers of the campfire. She unraveled the blanket from around herself and crawled outside.The air was unusually cool tonight, and it made her cross her arms to keep warm. The first thing she saw upon standing up out of the tent was the form of Lyda resting on her knees in front of the fire as though she
Meanwhile, back at the campsite, Ellis sat by the fire, clutching his brother's bow in his hands. The quiver of arrows sat by his left side, and on his right, he had moved the comatose Lyda by the fire, hoping the heat might wake her up. He checked her pulse every few minutes and did everything their father had taught him and Eran, but this was a situation neither of them thought they would ever encounter. He continued to check her body after Eran and Jay had gone, but he could find no traces of bites or anything that might cause something like this. It was as if Lyda had simply gone to sleep and refused to wake up.Ellis looked back toward the girls' tent continuously, wondering if he should just wake Adea and tell her what was going on, even if only for some company. The longer he waited for the others to return, the more the faint sounds of the nighttime woods began to unsettle him.