Bloodlines one: Azura's Curse

Chapter One

"Your bags are in your room. Mr Russell will be back by six so make yourself at home.", the driver told me. The house was gigantic, I was pretty sure I was going to get lost in a place like this. The living room was really spacious, it was probably the same size as the living room and kitchen at home combined together. There was a chandelier at the center illuminating the whole room.

"Thanks.", I whispered still captivated by the mansion I was in. I didn't even notice when the driver left, he didn't even tell me which one is my room. I decided to show myself around. I took pictures of any place I passed just to be sure I don't get lost somewhere inside this house.

*******

It's been about thirty minutes and I was still looking around the place. I found a big room containing only a piano, a bedroom with a large picture of a middle aged dark skinned woman on the wall and other rooms that were just empty. I was getting hungry and tired so decided to leave the unexplored rooms for another day. I turned to head down the first flight of stairs when I heard a knock. The knock came from upstairs but this was the last floor. They say curiosity killed the cat but I was itching to know who or what was knocking.

I reached the end of the corridor and drew down the attic stairs. I tightened my phone in my hand and did a quick sign of the cross.

"Um.. hello?" What am I expecting? A weird looking creature to say ' hi sorry for disturbing you. I want to eat you now ' or what. I heard the knock again and this time it was louder. I've watched a couple of horror movies to know that this was a bad idea but my legs were now moving on their own accord.

I saw something covered with a red velvet. I removed the material only to see a vintage machine, it looks like a photocopying machine but I am not sure though.

******

I was sitting on the bed of my new room staring at the machine on my bed, surprisingly the machine didn't have any dust as if someone was maintaining it. I searched for old photocopying machines on the web and I found one that looked similar to the one here. I looked around the body of the machine looking for a start button or something. I found a button, it didn't have anything written around it to show it was the start button so I just clicked on it. An old brown paper partially came out of the machine and it had only two words written on it.

Number of _____

I saw a faded word at the end but I couldn't make out what it was. Number of what?, What could they be talking about? I took out a pen from my bag and wrote my lucky number, 4. You may ask why I was signing this without any caution but I was already too deep in whatever it is I was doing to actually think of a consequence.

I didn't know what to do after I wrote the number so I tried to put it back inside the machine but it was not working. In the process of forcing the paper back, I got a paper cut and my blood dropped on the paper. I may sound crazy but I watched the drop of my blood turn to my signature, what the..? Is this some kind of magic trick or something? The paper went back into the machine and... nothing happened.

I started unpacking my stuff and I went to the bathroom to put my toiletries. I heard something fall more like someone fall, it sounded like a human being that fell down. I came out of the bathroom only to come face to face with four girls that looked like me, chocolate skin, black curly hair that just won't stay in place, doe brown eyes and my 5'5.

"Hi Camilla, we're Camilla. Nice to meet you.", all four of them said at the same time while I just stared at them dumbfounded.

"I.. I'll be right back.", i managed to say before rushing out of the room. I speed dialled Sean's number immediately .

"Sean, can you come over to my uncle's house for a second?"

******

"It hasn't even been a day since you came here and you are already causing trouble.", Sean said ruffling his blonde hair.

"Oh please. You would've done the same if you were in my shoes.", I snapped at him. Sean may be my best friend but he can be annoying at times even if he's saying the truth.

"Let me do a little recap", Sean said clearing his throat, "you found an old machine that was making knocking sounds in the attic, you foolishly signed a paper with your blood and now the creepy machine made replicas of you."

"Exactly", I agreed.

"Do you think I'm stupid?", Sean said rolling his eyes.

"At times, yes but since seeing is believing, come and see the replicas." I said exasperatedly walking towards the stairs.

"Wait, you think I'm stupid?", Sean asked following me. I didn't give him an answer because I didn't want to start a national argument here.

"Here they are.", I said opening the door. I looked inside the room and saw the replicas unpacking the rest of my luggage and tiding the room up.

"This has to be a joke.", Sean whispered looking at the replicas.

"It is not.", I replied, "God knows what uncle Russell would do if he finds out the mess I've made."

"What would he do?", Sean asked pinching the cheeks of one of the clones who slapped his hand away in return.

" Ever since I've known him, which is all my life, uncle Russell is very particular about his stuff.", I explained, "There is this one time I took one of his big books and balanced it on my head -"

"Oh that time you thought you were a princess. You were a naive seven year old, you know.", Sean said chuckling and I glared at him.

"That's not the point and every girl is a princess whether she has a tiara or not.", I huffed, "When my uncle saw me with his book, his face changed into that of pure anger. I think the only reason he was holding back was because I was his little seven year old niece."

"Camilla?!", Oh no, it's uncle Russell, he's supposed to be back by six.

"Is that..?" Sean asked with wide eyes.

"It is.", I whispered in response, "what do I do?"

"I don't know", Sean replied frantically.

"Camilla?!" Uncle Russell called again and this time his voice was closer.

"Yes uncle Russell.", I answered coming out of the room and shutting the door behind me.

"There you are.", uncle Russell said smiling at me. If I said he hasn't aged a bit, you would think I'm flattering him but seriously, he hasn't aged at all. " How is my little bumpkin?"

"Ugh" I groaned playfully rolling my eyes at him, "I'm fine uncle. How are -", I heard a loud shatter and I was pretty sure uncle Russell heard it too.

"Is there anyone inside?", He asked looking at me suspiciously.

"Um.. yeah. My best friend, Sean, came over. You remember him, right?", I said nervously before poking my head into the room, "Sean, uncle Russell is here", the bedside lamp was now in pieces and Sean was standing right beside the broken lamp.

"I didn't do that", he said immediately.

"Doesn't matter. Uncle Russell would like to meet you", I said signalling him to come out already.

"Um... Good afternoon sir. Nice to see you here", Sean said nervously.

"This is my house.", uncle Russell said raising his eyebrow at Sean.

"Why don't we go downstairs and catch up?", I said trying to push them both out of the area. We were almost at the staircase when another loud noise was heard, oh no. Uncle Russell headed straight to my room and Sean and i hopelessly followed behind him.

"What have you done, Camilla?"

Oh God