Spell for the day :

<<< sanguinem acceptatio >

Blood acceptance.

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I drag her along with me but accidentally trip down and fall down from the flight of stairs, dragging Ingrid with me. Ingrid hurts her elbow and hisses out in pain.

"Arrggghhhhhhh...." we both yell.

My butt numb from the ride down the stairs.

No wonder we aren't allowed in here.

We roll down and fall at the bottom of the stairs. My eyes closed through the fall and my hands covering my face. 

Thankfully, there was a worn out carpet down and the fall wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I ended up scraping my knees and my arms, but other than that I was fine. Ingrid just scraped her palms, nothing more.

"You alright?" I ask, trying to get up.

"Now where the hell did this lead us to?" Ingrid questions.

"How the hell would I know?" I answer her, groaning in pain. I hold my knee tight, grimacing as it stung. I look around with rapid movements of my eyes, desperate for a way out.

Sure this was fun, in the sense that I love a good mystery, but right now I am terrified.

I help myself up with great difficulty and go in search of an exit. The whole room was so dusty and creepy.

"It's an old room, I don't think anyone uses this room anymore. Ingrid, look..." I say pointing to an old sturdy door.

"There is a door behind you," I say, excited. I hobbled over, ignoring the pain, shooting right up my leg, as I dared a smile, hopeful that this might be a way out.

"Thank god!" Ingrid walks to the door, but it looks like it is locked.

The old lock has two women warriors standing on either side holding a sword. I remember seeing it somewhere, I whack my brains and I recollect seeing it in my granny's journal. I wonder what it meant. Maybe a visit to the barn may be needed!

"Why would anyone lock this old stinky room from inside?"

"For making out or maybe to use the old room up," Ingrid answers.

"Eww, gross !"

She turns and walks towards the door. She tries pushing either point of the wrenches into the curvy handle of the lock and then pushes them together,

"We probably would need a key to get our asses out," I say.

"Not anymore," Ingrid says, opening the door by breaking the lock into two pieces. Ingrid had been into few defense and survival lessons. But I didn't expect her to actually break this open.

I take the lock and walk out of this dusty, stinky room.

We venture outside to find a set of stairs going downstairs; it leads to a dark passage which again had stairs, this time going up.

Phew! This was never-ending.

We climb these stairs and finally see a trapdoor.

"Wait up," I say, now panting like a dog.

"Come on!" Ingrid says, dragging me.

We open that trap door only to find ourselves at the shed behind our house, which we no longer use.

I looked up at the tower, and the raven was still sitting on the windowsill.

"Have you ever wondered why Nana never wanted us to go upstairs? " I ask and I see her lost in her own thoughts.

"And what's the thing with this book?" I ask now, trying to open it.

Ingrid finals returns to her senses and answers my question by yanking the book from my hands. I was staring at the circle in the middle of the book. It felt as it the circle was calling out to me.

"What's with these letters and tiny knobs inside the circle? " I say, peeping at the cover.

"Okay, let's go to the barn where nana's journals are there and decide what to do with this book. Maybe a few of her journals could help us," she says, sounding all too excited.

Maybe I should remind her of what she say yesterday.

We step outside to see that it has finally stopped raining, but the mud below was sticky and the temperature dropped quite a few degrees. The cool breeze around calmed my nerves.

We go inside the barn, which was relatively small and now converted to a storeroom. When we were kids, Nana used to get us here and tell us stories about this town, which I thought were just some old wives' tale.

We were in the barn and were contemplating what to do when we hear some low whistles like a sad symphony ringing by our ears and I feel sudden gushes of air around us as if someone or something moved way too fast.

"I-Ingrid what was it?" I ask, with a quivering voice.

Ingrid looked around, and I follow her movements. She goes to the door and closes it.

"Here, this was making the sounds."

She says walking back to me. The echo of those whispers was still evident in the air around. We closed all the windows and the doors, but the sounds persisted.

I could hear the shrill voice of the raven and suddenly we hear a loud 'thud', above us, like something heavy fell down on the barn shed.

I make my way towards the door to find out what caused the sound, when the room suddenly turned a shade darker. I turn around to see the book emitting an eerie glow and the room around turning foggy.

I couldn't even spot Ingrid in this dense fog.

"Ingrid!" I try yelling but even I couldn't hear my voice. It was like the book was a vacuum and absorbed all the sounds around.

I distinctly made out a silhouette of someone in the fog approaching me with a sickle in one hand wearing a hood. My mind went into overdrive.

Was this my imagination?

I couldn't understand what was going on. Maybe I was imagining things. My eyes turned blurry, and the surroundings became hazy.

"The fuck is happening, Lili," Ingrid yells, now standing beside me.

I don't know how did she spot me, but I thank my stars she did. She successfully breaks me from my haze.

She drags me outside and we run away from the barn screaming at the top of our lungs. We reach the kitchen, fortunately; the door was open, and we stopped running and screaming only when we were in the safety of our house.

I see that the kitchen was relatively empty, even our cook wasn't here.

We were panting and were completely out of breath after the marathon that we literally ran.

The image of the silhouette was imprinted in my mind. It looked dangerous and creepy, like a vicious creature.

"Grim Reaper," I whisper.

" What ?"

"Oh, no," whispers someone.

I look up to see Mrs. Potts standing by the door.

My sister and Mrs. Potts reply at the same. Mrs. Potts!! Where did she come from?

"I came here some time back to check up on you two. But you guys weren't here," she says as if reading my mind.

"Oh well, we went for a run," Iddy says casually. I turn around and give her a 'Are-you-serious' look.

She shuts my trap with a 'Let-me-manage' this look and honestly she was the better one at lying so I let her do it.

Mrs. Potts knows we are lying yet she lets it slide by. That's a first. I wonder what is she really up to. After seeing the weird behavior of her last night, I couldn't quite trust everything here to be the same as they look.

We remain quiet, just making the occasional conversation after that and try not to garner attention. Mrs. Potts leaves after dinner and we disperse all the housemaids and attendants too. Except for Mr. and Mrs. Clark, who live in the outhouse.

"Same room please," I say begging Iddy to stay with me.

The aftermaths of that grim reaper are still fresh and I have absolutely no intention of facing it again.

We head on to my room and I could hear the loud patter of the rain as it hit the windows. This rain too, was never-ending.

I usually enjoy rains and I'd happily sit by the window enjoy a good book with the slow patter of the rain in the background, but today I am tired after the whole episode and somehow this rain just doesn't have its usual effect on me.

I silently pray to god for a good night's sleep. I turn the lights off courtesy Iddy and have my blanket covering me, from head to toe.

I was tossing and turning around in my bed and I looked up at the digital clock on my nightstand. It read 3:03 am. Unwanted ghost stories, myths started popping up in my head. The Grim Reaper's silhouette wasn't far from making an appearance. 

Suddenly I see flashes of that strange boy from the ball. I close my eyes, hoping I get no more such images in my head. 

But no, my brain never listens to me!

It someone manages to do just the opposite and now I hear someone whispering something in an unknown dialect. I try closing my ears, but that doesn't help either.

The whispers started getting closer and louder. The words sounded strange and foreign to me.

"sanguinem acceptatio"

What does it even mean? The whispers are getting clearer, with every passing minute. As if whoever is telling those, is coming closer, approaching us.

I clutched my blanket tightly and am praying all this stops. The patter of the rain outside was getting louder, but the words they whispered still remained clear. My heart was racing, just the way the thunder outside was flashing.

The windows start banging on their own accord and the curtains flew around.

The violent wind hit our room, disrupting the table by the window. I could distinctly hear the sound of something crashing downstairs. I clutch my blanket tight as the wind got rough with every passing minute.

I try to switch on the light, but looks like the power was gone. I slowly move closer to Ingrid, afraid of what the wind brought.

I would never go to the basement in such a situation to turn on the invertor.

A lighting struck outside and lightened our dark bedroom. I could distinctly make out the silhouette of someone in the dark.

My first reaction was to shout for help, but my voice was caught in my throat. My body couldn't move, like it was paralysed. My eyes rapidly search the room, looking for anything that could help me.

Maybe, it's all my imagination.

I try to calm myself down, as those whispers slowly dim down, but then suddenly I feel a pair of hands graze over my body from under the blanket.

I hold my breath, afraid of what it was. My mind already set into overdrive. I was terrified and am unable to move a single muscle.

The dim light that hit out room with every lighting that struck, seemed unnatural. I could see shadows on the wall and the whispers slowly gaining momentum.

I scream for help, but strangely no words come out. I am paralyzed with fear and the thunders outside did nothing to calm me down.

That person's hand skimmed under the blanket, barely touching my skin. It's  hands felt hot over my cool skin. And then suddenly they land on my...

.

.

.

Thighs.

.

Then slowly moving over to  my stomach,

.

Neck and then .......

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Sorry for the late update. My best friend is undergoing chemotherapy and it is a pretty bad phase for me so sorry.

I hope you all like this chapter.

Until the next chapter

Lots of love
~ Vaishnavi.