Ten Days Later...

Lindsey sat on the edge of her make-up chair. She brushed her hair slowly, staring into her own hollow, dark circled eyes.

She yawned and stretched again, dying to go back to bed but tennis practice was of utmost importance. She thought of having to face Halle if ever she was planning on continuing as a tennis athlete. Her eyes fell on the framed picture of her and her friends on New Year's Eve. A reminder of the night it all started to crumble down. She could feel the soil underneath her moving, even though she was sitting comfortably in a chair. There was no doubt that ever since, strange things started to happen...

A series of text buzzed on her phone -it had become the symphony to her horrific days in the comfort of her bedroom. It was without a doubt her friends and perhaps somewhere in between her boyfriend -Ozzie Caldwell.

She heaved a sigh, muted her screen and attempted to climb back in bed -when her door flew open.

"Breakfast..." Marian, the housekeeper entered to find the sight of Lindsey crawling back in bed. "Up and out Lindsey Brooke Meccano. Breakfast was served thirty minutes ago and practice is in twenty."

Lindsey rolled to her side and faced the woman she hadn't seen since New Year's Eve. "I assume my parents is on business again."

Marian nodded and walked to sit on the bed next to Lindsey. "They'll be back soon enough."

"You don't have to use that one anymore, Marian -I'm way too old for that and a babysitter. Where they off to this time?"

"Mauro...they've found a young girl's body at the lodge's construction site."

At the mention of the town and a body in one sentence made Lindsey grow frantic. She concealed her angst expertly as years' experience of having absent parents had taught her.

Marian, however, could see the girl's pale complexion worsening. "Are you okay dear?"

"Yes I'm fine Marian. It's just that I was thinking about that poor girl. I can't imagine what she went through and what her loved ones is going through. It must be so hard."

"They already suspect what had happened but I wasn't even supposed to say anything, so you can't tell anyone. Especially not your parents, okay."

"I won't tell." Lindsey was curious. "I deserve to know what's happening and whether my parents are in any trouble."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Their not... I'm uncomfortable having to repeat your mum's words -being a religious woman..."

"Marian please..." Lindsey's eyes were pleading, "I need to know."

The woman grew concerned by the vulnerability she was rendering from Lindsey. A trait one would never observe in the teenager. "Lindsey, why is this so important? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"I'm not hiding anything Marian. If my parents are in some kind of trouble I need to know, that's all."

Marian saw her concern. "Okay, I'll tell you but don't forget that you never heard these words. It seems like the GIFB has been investigating the town for some time now. It's speculated that the coven is back once again and now, they're feasting off young teenage girls."

Lindsey's eyes grew big. "Marian are you saying..."

"Yes. They suspect the girl was sacrificed or something...it's horrible and I don't even want to talk about it anymore."

"It's fine Marian, I'll be down in a minute."

"Remember Lindsey...you never heard that."

"I swear." Lindsey mouthed.

***

Milena sat on the edge of her bed. She stared at herself in the mirror and yawned for what felt like the millionth time.

She took a deep breath and placed one hand on the mirror.

"You can do this, Milena..." She said to herself as she heard Halle's bedroom door shut gently down the hall.

She heard no footsteps, rocking the core of the fears she had build on New Years Eve. It was the very nightmare she came to bare every night.

She listened as Halle entered the bathroom, and waited in anticipation for the shower to turn on before tiptoeing down the hall.

She stopped in front of the room that bore the big red sign -Don't Enter or Knock...Leave!

She ignored it and slipped inside. She had listened and calculated every morning -Halle use the bathroom for precisely forty minutes. Enough time for her to find out what her sister had done on New Year's Eve.

She roamed inside the small cabinets, the closet yet upon opening the second drawer, found a big red journal laying on her sister's neatly stacked t-shirts. She opened it, her hands shaking. On the first page, was what she believed to be the pendant Halle had placed around her neck on New Years Eve. She gasped at how alive the eye staring back at her, felt. She quirked over to the ancient writing on the other page.

"...and this pendant, the Highest Praised whispers shone to protect me from all thy that lurked inside this world..."

"What have you gotten yourself into Halle?" Milena mumbled to herself.

She turned the page over, roaming through the journal as quickly as her curiosity would allow her. She stopped at a big red, bleeding cross.

"All The Dolls Go Dead"

"I have to get this to the girls." She contemplated...

A creaking sound brought terror as soon as it found her ears.

Milena stiffened, journal attached inside her hand. She had been so enchanted by the journal that she had forgotten what they were currently facing.

She slowly turned her head to the closet, that was slowly opening by itself.

"Milena..." She heard a female voice sing from the dark, corner closet. "Set me free."

Her heart was racing, every hair on her body penned up. A tear, the vulnerable indication of fear -rolled down her cheek.

"Who's there?" She whispered, nontheless.

"Take the book..." The voice echoed back and in an instant the closet shut again.

She quickly slipped out of the room and made a run towards her own room. She shoved the book inside her bag and grabbed her remainder of things -making her escape through her bedroom window. It was necessary to avoid family breakfast.

She feared her sister, it was evident that Halle wasn't the naïve girl she was back in seventh grade. It was far beyond innocent rivalry between them now. She considered Halle extremely dangerous - her ritual a threat against her friends and her town.