Novels2Search
The Werewolf Cheerleader
Book 6: Chapter 1

Book 6: Chapter 1

The late afternoon sun struggled to penetrate the dense canopy of oak and pine trees surrounding Moon Valley's abandoned Winters Manor. Jessica shifted her weight from foot to foot, clutching her backpack straps as Kevin fiddled with the rusty padlock on the front gate. The mansion loomed before them through gaps in the ancient trees, its broken windows staring down like hollow eyes. The fall air carried an unseasonable chill, heavy with the scent of decaying leaves and something else–something metallic and strange that made her throat tighten.

"Are you sure about this?" Jessica asked, glancing at Salina, who stood beside her, black-painted fingernails drumming against her folded arms. A crow called somewhere in the forest, making her jump. The sound echoed unnaturally as if bouncing off invisible walls. More crows answered, their harsh voices building to a crescendo before falling suddenly, unnaturally silent.

"Please," Salina rolled her eyes. "We've been talking about investigating this place for months. Don't tell me you're chickening out now."

"I'm not chickening out," Jessica protested, though her stomach lurched as the padlock finally clicked open. Dead leaves crunched beneath her feet as she took an involuntary step backward. The sound seemed to reverberate through the surrounding woods like the forest itself was amplifying their presence. "I just think maybe broad daylight isn't the best time for ghost hunting."

Kevin pushed the gate open with a dramatic creak that seemed to echo forever. The iron felt oddly warm under his hands, despite the cool air. "Actually, daylight's perfect. Better visibility means better evidence. Plus, less chance of getting arrested for trespassing." He tried to sound casual, but Jessica caught the slight tremor in his voice. Kevin had always been the skeptic of their group, approaching everything with scientific detachment, but even he couldn't deny the oppressive atmosphere surrounding the estate.

"Because that makes it so much better," Jessica muttered but followed her friends up the overgrown path toward the mansion's sagging front porch. The forest pressed in around them, branches reaching overhead like gnarled fingers against the dimming sky. The path itself seemed to twist and wind unnaturally, though it was barely fifty yards from gate to door. Every step felt like walking through invisible cobwebs, leaving phantom touches against their skin.

The house commanded their attention, a decrepit Victorian with peeling gray paint and a roof that looked ready to cave in at any moment. Vines crawled up the walls like grasping hands, their leaves an unhealthy shade of purple-black that Jessica had never seen before. The whole place reeked of decay and abandonment, undercut by that same metallic tang that had been present at the gate. An old swing hung from a massive oak tree beside the house, swaying slightly despite the still air. The ropes were pristine, showing no signs of rot despite decades of exposure.

"This is where the infamous Seren Winter lived," Salina announced, her voice taking on the theatrical tone she always used when sharing local legends. She pulled her leather jacket tighter against the unseasonable chill. Her silver pendant gleamed at her throat, seeming to pulse with its own inner light. "They say she was a dangerous witch who murdered women until she vanished without a truce before the mob could catch her. Nobody knew where she went.”

"Yeah," Kevin replied, testing the porch steps. His short dark hair fell into his eyes as he leaned down to examine the rotting wood. "I also read that after she vanished, weird things started to happen when the previous owners brought the house. They heard whispers, and saw faces in the darkness. Soon, nobody wanted to own this place ever again. Spooky places never sold well." He pulled out his phone, frowning at the screen. "That's weird–full bars when we parked, but now there's no signal at all."

“This place is spooky alright," Salina explained. “Look around, there's definitely something weird about this place. I can feel it. After she vanished, the forest itself grew up around the house like it was trying to hide what happened here. The trees aren't natural–look at how they grow." She gestured at the twisted trunks, the way they seemed to spiral around the property in concentric circles. “They say Seren saw it coming. She knew the townspeople were coming for her. But they never caught her in the end.”

Jessica had to admit Salina had a point. The air felt heavy here, almost electric, like the moments before a thunderstorm. Her skin prickled with goosebumps despite the warm spring afternoon. The trees seemed to lean inward, creating a natural barrier between the mansion and the rest of the world. Even the sky looked different here, the clouds moving too fast in strange patterns.

The front door hung slightly ajar, wood warped and splintering around rusted hinges. Kevin pulled out his phone and switched on the flashlight before stepping inside. "Ladies first?" The beam seemed weak as if something was absorbing the light before it could properly illuminate their surroundings.

"Such a gentleman," Salina deadpanned but strode past him into the gloom. Jessica followed close behind, trying not to breathe too deeply through the musty air. The smell of rot and something else–something chemical and bitter–filled her nostrils. It reminded her of the chemistry lab at school, but twisted somehow, wrong so she couldn't articulate it.

The entry hall was a mess of fallen plaster and moldering wallpaper, their footsteps stirring up clouds of dust that seemed to hang in the air longer than they should. Shafts of sunlight pierced through holes in the roof, illuminating dancing motes in eerie columns. A grand staircase curved up to the second floor, its banister hanging at an awkward angle. The wood was carved with delicate patterns that seemed to shift when viewed directly.

"Check this out," Kevin called, sweeping his light across the wall. Crude symbols had been carved into the wood, dark stains seeping out from the grooves. Some looked fresh, others were weathered with age. The stains had an oily sheen, and Jessica could have sworn they moved slightly, following the beam of Kevin's light. "Think someone's been practicing their arts and crafts here?"

"Probably just local kids trying to be edgy," Jessica said, but her voice came out shakier than she'd intended. She ran her fingers along a deep carving and yanked them back–the wood was ice cold and seemed to pulse with a faint, sickly rhythm, like a dying heartbeat.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"No way," Salina stepped closer, tracing one mark with practiced movements. Her finger left a trail of faint luminescence that faded slowly. "These are old. Really old. And they're real witch marks–protection symbols gone wrong. See how the lines intersect here? That's not random. These are binding runes, but they've been corrupted. Twisted into something else." Her voice took on a strange resonance, as if someone else was speaking through her.

Kevin shined his light directly on Salina's face until she winced. "How do you know those markings? I have never seen them before.”

"I read some weird stuff," Salina muttered, suddenly interested in studying her boots. Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "About... you know. The craft." The pendant at her throat pulsed more strongly, casting strange shadows on the walls.

"Like, Weird Stuff for Dummies?" Kevin laughed, but the sound died quickly in the oppressive air. Something about Salina's expression made him step back slightly.

"Not funny," Salina snapped, but Jessica caught the hurt flash across her face before she turned away. Something crashed in a distant room, making them all jump. The sound echoed wrongly, as if coming from multiple directions at once.

They moved deeper into the house, floorboards creaking beneath their feet. The rooms were mostly empty save for broken furniture and animal droppings, but evidence of occult activity was everywhere–melted candle stubs arranged in circles, more symbols carved into door frames, and pages torn from spell books scattered across the floors. In what must have been a dining room, they found a table with deep scratch marks gouged into its surface. The grooves still held traces of something dark and flaky.

"Okay, this is legitimately creepy," Kevin admitted as they entered what must have been a library. Shelves lined the walls, most empty but some still holding ancient leather-bound volumes. The air here felt different–heavier, charged with something that made the hair on Jessica's arms stand on end. The temperature seemed to fluctuate wildly, hot and cold spots moving around them like invisible currents.

Salina gravitated toward the books immediately, pulling one down with reverent hands. Dust cascaded from its pages like gray snow, forming patterns on the floor that looked disturbingly like faces. "These are real grimoires," she breathed, carefully turning brittle pages covered in spidery handwriting. The ink seemed to crawl across the paper, rearranging itself when viewed from different angles. "Actual spell books. Look at these diagrams–they're nothing like the stuff you find online. These must be Seren's personal journals.”

"If they are, why nobody else touched them?" Kevin kept glancing over his shoulder at the doorway, where shadows seemed to gather despite the afternoon light.

"Maybe some folks here thought they're cursed," Salina guessed, so quietly Jessica barely caught it. She clutched the book to her chest like a shield. The pendant at her throat burned brightly now, casting a silver glow over the pages.

Something shuffled in the corner, and all three of them jumped. A rat scurried across the floor, disappearing into a hole in the baseboard. Its path left strange ripples in the dust, like something invisible was following in its wake. The ripples spread outward, forming concentric circles that slowly morphed into more of those unsettling symbols.

"Just a rat," Jessica laughed nervously, her voice too loud in the stillness. "Though I vote we head upstairs before we meet any more of his friends." She didn't mention how the temperature seemed to drop steadily, or the way shadows appeared to move when viewed from the corner of her eye. The darkness in the corners had weight to it, a substance that seemed to reach toward them with ghostly fingers.

The grand staircase creaked ominously as they climbed, but held their weight. Each step felt slightly wrong, as if the distance between treads kept changing. The upper floor was darker, the windows mostly boarded over, though strange lights seemed to dance behind the planks. Kevin's phone light swept across closed doors and more occult symbols. Many of the symbols appeared to have been carved with desperate haste, the lines jagged and deep. Dark stains that looked disturbingly like handprints partially obscured some.

"There's supposed to be a mirror up here somewhere," Salina said, moving ahead of them down the hall. Her boots left clear prints in the dust, disturbing years of silence. The dust swirled up in her wake, forming shapes that looked almost like letters before dissolving. "The stories say it's what Seren used for her darkest spells. Some people claim they've seen her face in it. Others said it's not just a mirror–it's a door. A gateway she created when she knew they were coming for her."

"Because that's not cliché at all," Kevin joked, but he kept close to the others, his light darting from corner to corner. The beam seemed weaker with each passing moment, as if something was drinking the light itself.

Jessica's retort died in her throat as they reached the final door. Unlike the others, this one was pristine–no rot, no water damage, the brass handle gleaming as if recently polished. The wood seemed to pulse with a faint, sickly light, and the surrounding air bent like a heat mirage. The frame has carved symbols, more complex than any they'd seen before, forming intricate patterns that made Jessica's head hurt if she looked at them too long.

"Okay, that's weird," Kevin said, lowering his phone. "Obviously a paranormal doorway.”

Salina reached for the handle, her hand trembling slightly. The pendant at her throat blazed like a miniature sun, illuminating the hallway with silver fire.

"Wait!" Jessica grabbed her wrist. The air around the door felt wrong, like it was bending away from some unseen pressure. Reality itself seemed thin here, as if it might tear at any moment. "Maybe we shouldn't—"

But Salina had already turned it. The door swung open silently, revealing a perfectly preserved bedroom. Dust sheets covered the furniture, one book shelf sat against the wooden crippled wall, but in pride of place stood an ornate full-length mirror in a black frame carved with more of those unsettling symbols. Unlike everything else in the house, the mirror's surface was spotless, reflecting the room with unsettling clarity. But the reflections were wrong–showing angles that shouldn't have been possible, movements that didn't match their own.

"Whoa," Kevin breathed. His phone light flickered, casting strange shadows across the walls. The shadows moved independently, reaching toward the mirror with eager fingers.

Salina stepped forward as if in a trance, her reflection rippling strangely in the ancient glass. The symbols on the frame seemed to writhe and shift, rearranging themselves into patterns that hurt Jessica's eyes. The pendant at Salina's throat pulsed in rhythm with the mirror's strange light.

"Salina, don't—" Jessica started, but her friend was already reaching out, fingers stretching toward the mirror's surface. The air grew heavy, pressing against their ears like deep water.

The moment Salina's fingers touched the glass, a spiderweb of cracks shot across it with a sound like breaking ice. Dark mist poured from the fractures, wrapping around her like hungry tentacles. The temperature plummeted, their breath visible in sudden clouds. Salina's eyes went wide, then rolled back in her head as she collapsed. The pendant at her throat shattered, scattering silver shards across the floor.

"Salina!" Jessica and Kevin rushed forward, catching her before she hit the floor. The mirror had gone black as pitch, and something moved in its depths–something that had nothing to do with reflections. A green face pressed against the glass from the other side, features twisted in a grotesque angry snarl. Kevin's phone light flickered rapidly and died, plunging them into the gray gloom filtering through the boards on the windows.

"We need to get out of here," Kevin said, already lifting Salina's limp form. Her skin was cold as marble, and her breath came in shallow gasps. Purple veins stood out starkly against her pale skin, forming patterns that matched the symbols on the mirror's frame. "Now."

They half-carried, half-dragged their unconscious friend down the stairs and out of the house, not stopping until they reached the relative safety of the iron gate. Kevin lowered Salina gently to the ground and fumbled for his phone, cursing when it refused to turn on. The forest seemed to press closer, branches creaking overhead despite the still air.

"Here, use mine," Jessica said, pulling out her own phone with shaking hands. As Kevin called Salina's grandmother, Jessica looked back through the trees at the mansion. The forest seemed to have grown even denser, branches intertwining overhead until barely any light reached the ground. The house stood silent and dark, revealing nothing of what had just happened within its walls.

But deep in Jessica's gut, she knew with crushing certainty that they'd just made a terrible mistake. Whatever lived in that mirror–whatever they'd just awakened–would not stay trapped behind the glass for long. And Salina, with her grandmother's teachings and her silver pendant, had just given it exactly what it needed to break free.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter