The entire night was no more peaceful for Adea than the previous. The nightmare from before was the most horrible she had ever experienced, and she hoped it would never happen again. This night, however, was no better. Adea's sleep was plagued by fleeting dreams of voices whispering to her from the shadows. They came one after the other with very little reprieve in between. Most of the time, she just heard the voices as if they were all around her, whispering in her ears. She could not understand what they were saying, but there were many. Actually, it sounded more like the same voice but speaking to her from multiple angles, almost like it was conversing with itself.
The voices only sounded for a few minutes at a time, but in her lucid state of sleep, it felt like an eternity; an eternity of pure fear. Every time she heard them, Adea refused to allow her mind's eye to open and clenched her real eyes as tight as she could. She could feel their presence all around her and did not want to see who or what the voices belonged to. They became so incessant that Adea eventually pulled her pillow around the back of her head and held it firmly against her ears, but it did not stop the voices from clawing into her mind, as if they were angry that she was trying to resist.
This time, the whispering did not fade away after a few minutes. Her heart was racing as they continued to grow louder and more sporadic. She felt the uncontrollable urge to scream rising to the surface, and just before she could let one out, her eyes flew open.
The whispers ceased. Once again, it took her eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, but she found herself lying on her back. Everything had gone silent. The only thing she could hear was her heavy breathing and the beating of her own heart. It was then that she noticed something peculiar and very frightening.
Adea realized she was not lying in her bed, but rather on the hard, wooden floor in the center of her room. Her head was pointed toward the bedroom door and she could see the open window on the opposite end of the room. She could sense that she had woken up and guessed that she had tossed and turned so much throughout the night that she ended up on the floor somehow. The worst part, however, was that she could not move a muscle.
She was frozen there upon the floor. She tried to command her limbs to move but they would not budge. Her next attempt was to cry out for help, but her mouth refused to move either. The only thing she could move was her eyes as she glanced anxiously around the room. It was almost as if her arms and legs were bound and someone had gagged her, but there was nothing binding her. She could feel an intense pressure upon her chest as if someone was pinning her down with a heavy foot. She was terrified beyond description.
Adea's heart stopped when she heard a muffled thump come from downstairs. She listened intently as another thump sounded, followed by another, and she began to panic. Someone was coming up the stairs. Adea struggled desperately against her paralysis but to no avail. Every part of her body persistently refused to move. The footsteps climbing the staircase were heavy and slow, and Adea was convinced that it was an intruder. She tried to muster as much will as she could to call out for her parents. Nothing would come out.
The footsteps were near. Adea's eyes rolled back toward the door when she heard it begin to creak open, much like the way it did in her dream the previous night.
"No," Adea uttered in her head. This time, the door slowly opened the entire way. An incredibly cold rush enveloped her. As much as she wanted to look away, her eyes were glued toward the top of her head so that she could just barely see below the top of the door frame. The hallway outside was darker than the bedroom, and as the door opened up, Adea heard what sounded like a cold, raspy moan flow inside.
The floorboards began to creak. Somebody was stepping through the doorway. A tear of horror leaked out of Adea's eye, and before long, she saw a pitch black figure come into view. From her angle, all she could make out was the head of the figure. It was towering over her and appeared to be staring down at her. Adea could not make out any distinctive features. The figure's head was darker than its surroundings. There were no eyes, no nose, mouth, or hair. Nothing.
The pressure in Adea's chest was stronger now than ever. It was excruciating. The figure knelt behind her, leering at her with its faceless, shadowy form. Adea could not take her eyes away from it, managing to let out a weak whimper as it got closer. Eventually, the figure's head floated no more than six inches away from her face. Her heart was pounding furiously. The pain it was causing her was very real, which meant that what she was seeing was real. This was not a dream. She had never been more scared and helpless in her life.
Suddenly, the figure manifested a pair of eyes. It was just like the nightmare from before when this monster had taken the form of her own sister. The eyes that appeared were large and glowed with a hellish, yellow hue. She regained just enough control of her body to let out rapid fits of terrified breathing through her nostrils. It was as if this thing was playing a sick game with her, allowing her only enough strength to display that she was afraid beyond description.
Then the worst happened.
The monster slowly opened its mouth. Adea's eyes were as wide as humanly possible as she was met by two rows of the most horrifying, unnatural-looking teeth, like thirty sharp, elongated knives. Just when its mouth reached the point of Human limitations, it continued to expand like the razor-sharp maw of a serpent. Adea whimpered and sobbed with the only bit of strength she had, but every instinct was urging her to scream in terror.
As the mouth opened twice as wide as any Human she had ever seen, Adea heard the raspy moaning come forth from the black hole that was its throat. The moaning escalated until the creature let forth a horrifying, guttural roar that sounded like an animal's distorted cry as if it was being slaughtered. Adea's eyes were forced shut, and just like that, every muscle in her body gradually began to come back to her. Her sobs became a screech, until at last, her mouth flew open to let out the horrific screams she had harbored ever since she had awoken.
She could barely catch her breath, the urge to scream was overwhelming, as was her fear. She opened her eyes as she cried out. The creature was still knelt above her, its mouth wide open as it continued to wail at her from above. It raised a black, spidery-fingered hand and began to lower it toward her face. Adea shut her eyes again, and just then, she immediately regained control of her entire body, but all she could do was throw her arms up as if to shield herself. A hand grabbed her firmly by the wrist. Adea screamed louder than ever, thrashing about on the floor as she waited for the demon to do something to her.
"Adea!" a voice called out to her. She barely registered it as she flailed uncontrollably on the floor. "Adea!"Something snatched hold of her other wrist, trying to hold her still. Adea only struggled while her arms were pulled away from her face."Adea, calm down! Wake up!"Against every fiber of her being, Adea opened her eyes again. Though she was still screaming at the top of her lungs, she was shocked to find herself staring up at the face of her sister."Adea!" Lyda repeated, trying to get through to her. "Look at me!"Adea's screams slowly began to dissipate, her wide eyes glued to her sister's. Lyda's heart was pounding just as hard as Adea's. Just then, she heard the frantic scrambling of footsteps coming from down
Neither Lyda nor Adea slept the rest of the night. Adea was far too frightened to even close her eyes and constantly asked her sister what she really thought about the dreams she was having. Lyda responded by reminding her that none of it could possibly be real, much to Adea's chagrin. Despite her apparent lack of interest, Lyda was, in fact, taking all this in intently, and she stared up at the dark ceiling, anxious to delve deeper into the pages hidden under her bed.It was not long after Adea's most recent night terror that the first rays of morning began to peek over the mountains to the east, and Lyda was thankful that she returned from her little nightly excursion when she did, or else she would surely have faced the wrath of their parents. By their mother's request, the two of them were left to sleep a little later into the morning instead of being woken up for their early studies, and Iris would no
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