The early morning sun arose in the sky painting a shade of orange over the city. Victoria's eyes creaked open to be greeted by the faint gleams of sunlight peeking through the blinds covering her bedroom window. She got up to begin her morning routine of showering, making coffee and cooking breakfast since it was a day off and could spare the time. The alluring smell of the eggs and bacon reached Adrian's nose. He soon showed up to join her at the table.

"Morning." He muttered groggily still half asleep.

"Hey there sunshine." Victoria replied with a giggle.

"Bacon? Fuck yes." He already began digging in to his food. She smirked and began eating as well.

After breakfast Adrian got dressed and plotted himself onto the couch to watch some television while he waited for Victoria to freshen herself up, which usually took around ten minutes. The news played on as the two anchors, an older gentleman with slicked back silver hair and a pompous young blonde woman with layers of makeup on, were about to deliver their prompted lines;

"I'm sure many of you out there are recovering from the massive New Years celebration from last night in Times Square. This turned out to be the biggest celebration in over a decade. Yes hundreds upon thousands of residents had all gathered to watch the great ball drop followed with a performance from popular musician Silvestria with the debut of her newest hit single 'Disasterpiece' off of her upcoming record. I know you and I were both enjoying ourselves, eh Cindy?" The man spoke.

"Absolutely John. It was a truly mesmerizing performance. An upbeat, rhythmic tune for the younger and current generations that had the crowds going wild down in the square. While the previous decade has been quite tumultuous on not only us but the whole world, everyone is hoping with the new decade starting that we can look forward to a better decade." The woman babbled on. Adrian rolled his eyes but continued to watch until Victoria approached him. He carefully observed the outfit she threw on; black low-cut long-sleeved shirt with a galaxy pattern woven around it and a black mini skirt with velvet red pantyhose underneath.

"Anyone ever tell you that your fashion sense is impeccable? Besides me of course." Adrian joked.

"I hear it from my friends sometimes. Unlike you I actually have to put effort into my appearance." Victoria snickered.

"Ouch. That cut deep."

"You'll cope. Anyway, let's go somewhere. We can chill back here later. Ever since winter started I've always been cooped up inside on my days off, and your idea of dates lately has been ordering pizza and watching movies until three in the morning."

"Ohhh fine. Uh...how about we hit that little strip of stores a few blocks down from here? I need some new threads anyway and got this Christmas money from my mom to blow."

"Sure. But I want to go check out the bookstore afterwards. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am."

Victoria and Adrian threw their boots on and headed down the elevator then out to the streets. The roads were rather quiet with few cars and people in sight as their stroll to the strip began. A chilling wind blew in the brisk winter air. The sun was out but snowflakes still fell from the skies above. After about reaching the halfway point, a small yet popular coffee shop called Daley's Brews, they turned the corner and made it about ten steps before a homeless man sitting in an alley sputtered at them;

"You two youngin's there!"

Victoria and Adrian turned to face him.

"What?" Victoria spat, annoyed.

"You enjoyin' your little stroll? Perhaps headed for some shopping or a bite to eat?" The tattered, dirty older man asked with a glint in his eyes and an initially upbeat tone.

"Uh, sure? Actually shopping is correct."

"How nice. A beautiful young couple in their prime...so nice to see."

"Thanks? Hey we have to get going-"

"Spending their free time together, hand-in-hand. Smacking lips together in public places. Not a care in the world...You best be enjoyin' this tender moment young lady. Cherish all the good times you have right now. Ain't gonna' be much longer before we all embrace sweet death in her loving embrace..." The old man's tone suddenly shifted to an ominous one.

"E-excuse me?" Adrian said. Victoria raised an eyebrow at him, his words sending chills down her spine.

"...the new decade is here...yet the world continues to spiral downwards. We can celebrate now all we want...only to cope with the facts of our eventual demise at the hands of the planet we have destroyed. Hehehehe. Live your life while you have time...clock's a tickin' more and more every day. Nobody believed me thirty-five years ago...now who's the idiot? All hope is lost...all hope is lost...all hope is lost..."

Victoria shook her head and tugged on Adrian's arm to keep walking. The old man's repeating words echoed until they were out of earshot. Adrian scratched his head.

"I saw the look in his bloodshot eyes. Definitely cracked out on heroin or something. Poor bastard's lost his damn mind." He commented.

"You saw intoxication in his eyes. I only saw despair..." Victoria murmured still chilled to the bone by his long speech.

After spending some time glancing around and Adrian picking out a new set of clothes to wear at some point, the two went into the bookstore on the furthest end of the strip of stores. Adrian's eyes lit up spotting the section for manga. He let go of Victoria's hand to go straight for the section. She was used to this whenever they went to a bookstore to the point where they didn't even need to communicate about it. She just lets him go. Meanwhile she heads for the nonfiction section to skim the biographies. Serial killers, scholars dabbling in the occult arts and brave soldiers from periods of war facing the odds stacked against them were her particular interests when it came to these types of stories. She was familiar with many of the stories and knew which ones she still needed to read. Despite coming here at least twice a month to grab a new novel to read, she noticed something out of the ordinary. A book she had never seen before. An app she had on her phone notified her whenever a new story that pertains to her specific niche was releasing. This book she was never notified on. She grabbed it to look at the title: 'Beyond Our World; Collections of Stories from Those Who Have Connected to the Unknown Realms.'

"Excuse me. When did this get here?" Victoria asked after running up to the cheery elderly woman with long gray hair behind the counter.

"Oh. That one just came in deary. A woman brought it in just after Christmas. Said it was a gift from a relative and didn't particularly care for it's contents. It's not often we get old, used books in like that. Most of our older books are just from all the time this shop has been open. Donations are quite rare. And that one right there...is from nineteen-eighty-nine." The woman explained. Victoria was quite surprised.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"How much?"

"Hmm. Well I looked it up and it had a limited run when it was released. Considering it's rarity I'd say...fifty bucks."

"Sold."

Victoria ran over to where Adrian was, casually skimming through a manga novel until her noticed her out of the corner of his eye.

"I just bought this. It's super old and strange from the title." She said.

"Huh? Weird. Ya' gonna read it later?" He asked.

"Uh of course! In fact I want to read it now. You getting that or what?"

"Oh, yeah. They have the last three installments of 'Samurai XXX' I've been looking for. I'll go buy them then we can go."

"You and that smutty crap I swear. I'll never understand the appeal."

"Busty women with swords killing demons. That's good shit right there."

"Just get your smut already you loser."

A long explanation of the lore behind the explicit manga series during the walk home later, Victoria and Adrian got back to the apartment. The two planted themselves on the couch and began to read their newly acquired books. While Adrian was knee-deep in pages sprawled with scantily-clad women cutting up demons in the ruins of a city, Victoria was skimming through the various pages detailing the titles of the stories and their authors. From a tale involving first contact with aliens to communicating with a demon terrorizing a home, the stories seemed to deal with the paranormal and occult. Victoria then froze up when she got to a certain page. Her blood ran cold upon reading the title and author names.

"A Pact with the Divine One by Mary and Edward...Wintercroft." She spoke softly with a tremble in her voice.

"Huh? Ain't that your last name babe?" Adrian asked still gazing at the manga.

"Yeah um...what is this? The story is from all the way back in eighteen-seventy-four. I don't ever remember hearing those names in my lifetime."

"For real? I mean, I'm sure most of us don't remember the names of our long forgotten relatives. I sure as hell don't remember the names of my grandparent's parents or their parents and so on."

Victoria remained silent as she started to read the texts. She was always a fast reader with her eyes scanning every word in a millisecond. Her memory span was always sharp, being able to remember vividly from as far back as first grade. Yet those names, Mary and Edward, don't come to mind. Not from any mention by her parents or extended family. She was already five pages in within the span of just under ten minutes. Adrian set his manga down then glanced over at her.

"You've been awful quiet. That book got you sucked in and thinking of stuff?" He asked. She didn't respond. "I'll take your silence as a yes. Well, I gotta' use the toilet so I'll be back."

Adrian got up to head for the bathroom leaving Victoria alone with the book. The story vividly describes the two authors describing their experience with receiving a strange message from the unknown after venturing into an old cave off the coast of the town they lived a few miles from, etched with drawings from what appeared to be centuries ago. She then got to a passage where the author known as Mary, begins to describe what they saw at the end of the cave and the message they heard:

The symbol was quite unusual. Edward closely inspected it and motioned for me to approach and take a closer look for myself. It was a small circle with three smaller bean-shaped forms around it. Protruding out from the center of the symbol were two long, spindly forms vaguely resembling question marks like those from a book and a odd, shorter form shaped like a claw. We were unsure what this was supposed to mean. As we continued to inspect it I took my notebook out and decided to draw the symbol for myself to study later, perhaps ask a scholar or professor about it and see if they can deduct anything. Then...the symbol started to glow a dark, orange hue. The hairs on our arms stood up. We both stepped back and began to feel dizzy. The air was heavy. Next thing you know our bodies freeze in place. The eerie silence was broken with a ringing in our ears...a disembodied voice started to speak to me and Edward. "Thou have ventured where no soul should ever be. The mark calls out and you will answer to me. Forsaken grounds are where you stand. Forged from the gods beyond your land. Now you have awakened thee who speaks to you through your delicate human mind. Listen and I will make my claims to you who I have grasped in a bind. Your world, your kind, your existence, is fated to reach the final phase of evolution. Thou blood soaks the soil of the planet which you call home. Eventually as time goes on, the world you know will perish by your own hands. Be it the fire that burns those you worship at the stake, or the waters that will flood and drown the sons and daughters you abandoned. May all hope not be lost for there is a path of righteousness that can erode the self-destructive path you walk. Heed thy words and bear your souls to mine. Open your hearts and minds and sow your seeds of judgement here. Or walk free back to the roads thou shall pave with death. Look each other in the eyes, and declare your decision. For one day the wrath of the gods may not forgive your sins. Become one with me for thou kin and bloodline may inherit thy pact of which you seal.'

Me and Edward looked at each others eyes, and nodded to one another. The seal on the wall glowed brighter, blinding us both for but a moment. The voice then spoke in a foreign tongue we couldn't understand. Then the bright light vanished. The symbol had stopped glowing. The voice faded from our ears. Me and Edward left the cave not speaking a single word for the rest of that day and into the night. Our lives had changed on that fateful journey into the cave...'

Victoria's mind was racing as she finished reading the page. She started to feel a headache coming on. She didn't know what to think after reading it, closing the book shut. Adrian returned from the bathroom. He noticed the rather shocked expression on her face. It had him puzzled.

"What's with that look on your face? Look like you've seen a phantom." He said. She turned to face him and stood up.

"I need to contact my grandma. Ask her something about my parents." Victoria stated grabbing her phone and pulling up her grandma's contact number. She waited until someone picked up.

"Hello dear. This is a surprise call." A voice answered in a calming tone.

"Hi granny. Can I ask you something about my parents?"

"Oh? Of course."

"I know that they, died...in that accident all those years ago. So if you can't remember then it's okay. But um...did either of them ever mention a Mary or Edward around you or grandpa?"

"Mary or Edward? Well no but...where did you get those specific names from?"

"I just picked up this old book from a store. It's full of weird stories. And one of them is by a Mary and Edward Wintercroft. I, swear I don't ever remember those names being mentioned. But they share our family name."

"I see. Those...were actually the names of my own grandparents. I guess time has been rough on my old, aging mind that I never mentioned them to you. Or your father. A story you say, hm?"

"Yes. Eighteen-seventy-four is when it was written. Mentioned how they lived near a coastal town somewhere in Maine. That, ring a bell at all?"

"Now that you mention it...I believe I faintly remember occasionally visiting that home. The house me and your grandfather live in now was built some time after that. Around the nineteen-hundreds. And we do live in a coastal town here. I just do not remember what ever happened to that old house. Nor do I remember where it even was."

"Huh. Hey granny? What if I were to make a trip up there? To Maine where you and gramps live. I think there's something I...want to look into."

"You want to see if that old home is still around? If it means getting a visit from our own granddaughter who we haven't seen in so long. Of course. You're more then welcome to stay here during your visit dear."

"Really?? O-okay. I'll have to arrange the time off of work to come visit then. Thanks...granny. I have to go now though."

"Sure thing honey. Stay in touch, okay? I do miss the sound of your sweet voice."

"I will. Love you."

Victoria hung up the phone then looked over at Adrian, standing in place while he was listening to the conversation.

"Maine, huh?" He scratched his chin.

"Yes and you are coming with me. Got it? I refuse to go by myself."

"Y-yeah, sure. So like, if we're going to be staying at your grandparents house then does that mean we can't fuck?"

Victoria just rolled her eyes, standing up to hit him in the arm. He jolted back a couple steps.

"This could lead to something from my family's history that I never knew of and that's what you ask!? God you are an idiot sometimes."

She huffed. striding past Adrian to go put the book away in her bedroom. He glanced down at her phone sitting on the couch then watched her vanish around the corner. He rubbed his arm where her fist made contact.

"So is that a no then??" He shouted.