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Ever since the last time when everyone was thrown into hysterics, everything was going well without any unexplainable bizarre happenings for a while. As a week had gone by and nothing peculiar took place, Em and Kat once again became the skeptics without hearing a word what their open-minded sister had to say for the fun of it.

After numerous initiations of the subject at certain times; Lucy shrugged the need to even discuss the matter since she knew it was futile. Well, Lucy was never serious in the first place when she wanted to talk about it and that was the only reason why she didn't become cross or mad when Emily mocked Lucy for being the preacher or a rake in Emily's word as Lucy was digging around the dirt. Lucy was only genuinely interested because everything suddenly started to happen; thus, Lucy declared it might be a haunting.

Now, Lucy laughed for being pretentious as she prepared her bed. 

After that she was resting on the large balcony facing the garden and backyard ahead, illuminated by a full moon, waiting for her sisters to complete their chores. She inhaled the crisp night air and let the cold breeze caress her. Suddenly Katie arrived behind her back and tried to push her out. Lucy screamed only to be stifled by Emily who grunted in her signature mock disapproval at Lucy.

"You scream like a baby." Em teased.

"And you snore like a man." Lucy retorted.                           

"No, I don't. Well even then, at least, I don't scream like a girl."

"Guys, stop it you two for at least a day. At times, I feel like slapping the both of you until you knock yourself out and regain consciousness as a new person." Katie said with a smile and sighed.

"Not gonna happen." Emily muttered under her breath to which Lucy muttered, 'dork'.

All three of them stood staring at the beauty ahead in silence then. Something about the air was familiar and spooky at the same time for Lucy. Emily was humming a tune while Katie was smiling at something. Noticing that smile, Lucy asked suspiciously, "What is it? You look terribly happy today!"

"Yeah, I am I finished reading Pride and prejudice; I am happy for Mr.Darcy! I have always known he was a softy even though Elizabeth..."

"Alright, airtight; she was a jerk! Fine! Gosh, how many times have you read that?" Em said rolling her eyes at Katie.

"I just can't stop, ok!" Katie burst out giggling. Emily muttered 'disgusting' under her breath which made Lucy double over in laughter.

"What?" Emily snapped.

"I wish Darcy never married Elizabeth..."

"I will kill you if you say that!"

Katie and Lucy burst out laughing. Em snorted and stayed there fighting back that ghost of a smile on her lips threatening to break out.

Once again, they were silent; listening to nature.

"I wish I had a happy love story like them," Lucy muttered to herself but unfortunately, her sisters heard. Emily snitched her back as she guffawed out loud while Katie smiled affectionately and said she will if she believed in herself. Lucy just smiled and kicked Emily on her shin but that didn't stop Em from laughing.

"I am leaving!" Lucy said.

"Wait, what is that?" Katie exclaimed as Lucy turned to go.

With the change in her tone, teasing to seriousness; Lucy was curious and turned to look at what Katie was staring at. Emily got up from the difficult position she was in, wiping her tears and trying to stifle herself; interested to see what captured Katie's attention. That rarely happens.

In the illuminated back garden, with fresh grass, shrubs lined in the north corner and rose shrubs lines by the other end, lies a very vast compound and it is nothing but stretched backyard with heavy and tall trees. Like a little beautiful forest of their own. At the far end where the compound walls vanish into the darkness lays a gate that leads to the road which connects to the main road; fifteen minutes on foot.

What Katie was staring at felt like a shape of a man; standing partly in dimness and partly exposing to be seen. It's like he wanted his presence to be seen. He wore a long coat and stood absolutely still.

Lucy felt her chest being squeezed suddenly and it wasn't her reaction of being afraid.

Suddenly everything was dead silent, with the leaves not even twitching from its position.

"I wonder how that bugger got in. the back gates are always locked expect if our butler opens them and he is not that tall; should we ring the bell for him?" Emily asked looking at Katie.

Katie was staring intently to see if he was moving or not. It was then Emily saw how unnaturally Lucy was behaving.

"Lucy..." Lucy didn't listen. She was hyperventilating, paling alarmingly in fear while her hands and legs trembled. Something in her mind was telling her to not look at the creatures but she couldn't avert her eyes.

There was indeed more than one that Lucy can only see.

When Katie heard Emily calling Lucy alarmingly, she turned to see Lucy was draining color and looking soulless in the pale bright moonlight. Katie shook Lucy and made her turn to face her. "Lucy... what is it? It is just a man! We will ring the bell and let our father know. Why are you so scared?"

Lucy had still her eyes on the figures that were now floating towards her. She could clearly see the eyes trained on her. Blue, red and yellow eyes were staring at her from dark round fog masses. Scared, she looked at Katie with so much fright, that Katie had her eyes well up. "They are going to kill me! They are coming for me." Lucy whispered but Katie didn't have any moment to console her because something hard had hit Lucy on her head and she fell down rubbing the side of her temple and screamed when she saw blood.

Emily shrieked when she saw the thing come hit Lucy. She couldn't do anything though since it was all of a sudden. When they looked down what it was, it looked like a feathery ball. Suddenly, the ball cawed and stretched itself to become a raven and it flew away to the creatures now standing few feet away from the house looking at Lucy without their necks craned upwards.

Lucy fell out cold.

By the horrifying screams of Emily and Katie; those who were getting prepared to sleep started running through the hallways with their nightgown and robes flapping like ghosts in the darkness.

Lucy felt like she was sleeping.

She felt that she was sleeping for a long while, deeply and happily, only to be jerked awake by a very cruel looking maid just like the one she saw in the bridge mansion. Surprisingly, she woke in an unfamiliar bedroom. She was wearing the same frilled frock the girl wore.

When Lucy didn't get up, the maid whose name she remembered as Saiorse came to her and slapped her on the cheeks; hard. Surprisingly she felt the sting and was sad altogether but didn't cry because she was scared of the maid. Saiorse was intimidating Lucy to keep her mouth shut at all times and when she was preparing to go out of the room, Saiorse put her index finger and gestured shh.

Once Lucy was awake, she didn't know what to do. Like an automatic switch was being pushed on, she walked around to the bathroom; she didn't remember what she did there and came down to the dining area by the steps. Lucy remembered the place.

When the man saw Lucy, he beamingly hollered, "There is my darling, come, come, we have pudding for breakfast."

Lucy didn't answer but went straight to the table with a tight smile and sat down. Saiorse screamed at her for not changing her dress.

In a very tiny voice that belonged to a frightened five-year-old girl, she replied, "but this is my favorite dress."

"I am going to burn it today while you undress for bathing," Saiorse said harshly.

The man cleared his voice and said, "now, you don't get to decide what she wears and not. If she loved it, let her wear it. Now, run along and bring her some orange juice." he looked at Lucy and winked. His playful smile quickly vanished as he saw the red mark on Lucy's cheeks slightly swollen. Before he could ask about it, Saiorse fell down to the man's lips and kissed him long and hard. After the kiss, the man was disoriented, smiled at the maid and went on with his breakfast.

When Saiorse was out from the room, Lucy clutched to the man's sleeve and pointed at the red mark. The man only patted her cheeks and continued with the food.

As usual, her mother was away for something. Feeling deeply hurt and sad, she ran away from the table to the bathroom and cried a lot. As she was coming out from the bathroom to have her breakfast, she heard Saiorse talking to someone.

It wasn't a clear conversation because it was partially muffled and hushed. But few words were picked from the conversation and Lucy didn't know if she should be alarmed or ignore it.

"Yes, I know..." long pause. "Yes, the girl is marked." Longer pause. "NO! I can't do that. I will but not like that." A short pause, then; "Lady has to go first." Pause. "And yes I will do it slowly." Lucy can hear the shuffle of footsteps and she hurried to the dining table where her father just finished breakfast.

He was startled to see Lucy coming from the hallways.

"I just sat to have breakfast with you. What is wrong with your cheeks? They are swollen."

"I..."

"She fell as she was getting up from the bed. Hit her head pretty badly. It looks bad, oh my... come here, let me treat you first." The maid hurriedly took her away from a very baffled man.

Upon reaching the room, Saiorse applied for medicines on her cheeks and secretively took a vile from her waistcoat and made Lucy drink it. At first, she felt dizzy but then Lucy felt her head being squeezed from the inside. Before blacking out, she saw Saiorse smiling and raising her hands as she murmured something. 

Gasping awake from the sleep, Lucy scared Emily who was crying noiselessly which surprised Lucy. Katie was pacing in the room. Upon hearing her, she came with a bone-crushing hug squeezing the life out of Lucy. As she was being hugged, a piercing pain erupted on the left side of her head and she yelped. With a million sorry's being thrown at her, Katie let go of Lucy.

"Boy... I am glad to see ya. Never saw James out cold like that even when he overdosed."

Lucy was surprised to see Tina and Mina by her side. Mina was unnaturally chewing on a bubble gum while Tina ate her fingertips. But it was Mina who made the comment which made Tina slap her twin's head.

"I am so glad that you came but it takes me by surprise. Sorry for asking but what are you doing here?"

"That is a nice way of asking for sure; well, we were so grown into you that we missed you. Two weeks was enough for us to know that this was really bad that we booked our next flight down home in that rickety old bus; darn, that bus was too old. Anyway, your parents welcomed us real good with delicious goodies, nothing like the city food and so don't you dare ask us to go now." Mina grabbed a bag of chips from her duffle bag and started munching.

Lucy laughed but then winced when her head ached and said, "I am not going to ask you to leave you dork, but I do wonder and will advise you to stop eating. It will make you sick."

"Like I say always, she should be ten feet underneath somewhere by now. I wonder how she is alive with all those stuff she eats." Tina said as she walked to the windows to look out. "Wow, you have got some nice place."

"Hmm," Lucy muttered unintelligently, "what happened to my head?"

"You don't remember?" Emily asked disbelievingly.

"You fell as you walked away hastily after fighting with Em, you never are careful," Katie said, sitting by Lucy, glaring at Emily for asking that.

For her, it was better if Lucy didn't remember anything. A raven, balled up, hitting her on the head to make her bleed and get four stitches is beyond her logic.

"Oh... ok... so, when did you guys come?" Lucy asked. She did not really believe Katie's story but decided to leave it for the time.

"Oh, I have been here for hours," Mina said carelessly.

Once again Lucy was surprised. "Hours..." she asked baffled.

Katie replied, "Yes, you have four stitches on your head. You hit your heart pretty roughly and the doctor said it's best that you are asleep for a while."

"I don't believe you, Katie, tell me the truth."

"It's the truth Lucy, Sam might be around here alright. You can ask him if you like." Em said.

"No... no, that won't be necessary."

Though Lucy was forced to take rest, Tina and Mina insisted that they are to be taken out for a tour around this magical island. For them it was indeed a magical place of wonderment since being born and raised in cities and town; this place looked like heaven with rich greenery, rich sunlight and baby blue sky that brightened everything.

Katie was not too keen on leaving behind Lucy but was hushed and shooed away by her after a lot of effort and 'I'm fine' by Lucy. Finally, when being alone in her room, Lucy thought hard about what really happened. She couldn't remember anything. Soon after the girls descended, the nanny was up in her room with a tray full of goodies and medicines.

"How are you, my dear?"

"I am fine, what happened?" Lucy asked as she watched nanny pouring hot tea into a china glass.

"I don't know dear, we heard a sound and ran to you girls last night but found you bleeding and unconscious. It looks like you fell down hitting your head." Nanny said without looking at Lucy at all.

"What are you hiding nanny?" Lucy asked seriously to which nanny gave the sugared hot ginger tea and said she was hiding nothing. Feeling frustrated and dejected in being house arrested, Lucy slowly sipped her tea as nanny prepared her medicines and pulled the drapes over.

"You need to drink this after your meal and then take rest. You need to take a lot of rest."

"Ok."

Nanny left the room with a smile. Lucy finished her tea and ate her French toast slowly. She wasn't hungry but she knew if she had to have the medicines, she should eat something. Within half an hour of having the medicine, Lucy was snoring peacefully.

A murmur and loud whispering woke Lucy from her sleep. Waking up, the room was dark but the thick drapes were dancing in the breeze. Rubbing her eyes and propping her elbows, she looked about to see if the girls were back. Watching the drapes playing made her heart soar and became angry for being scared so easily.

She huffed and got out to close the windows but was startled to see lightning strokes illuminating the room eerily. She could sense something was in her room. She felt someone looking at her. She looked around feeling too scared to even whisper.

With a beating frantic heart and throbbing head, she looked around slowly but couldn't find anything. Suddenly the lightning illuminated the room as she was standing in front of her dresser mirror. She thought she saw something there.

She walked closer and inspected the mirror but there wasn't anything. All of a sudden a lightning flashed and she saw a skull in the mirror smiling at her. All she remembered in the dead of the night was a scream piercing through the darkness, coming from her, shattering the mirror.

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Sorry for being late. Was seriously discouraged and blah blah :D A looooong update ;) 

Sorry for the gif. Readers at night; double sorry :D 

Did this make your heart soar? 

Did this make you fearful?

Tell me in the comment section :)