CONJUROR

Chapter 1

The dried leaves crunched under her feet and its sound echoed in the silent neighbourhood as Victoria and the other four jumped into the garden of the Livingston Estate in the cold, full moon night.

"Is it really necessary to do this? For God's sake, we are 19, not 15. We shouldn't be trespassing." Victoria grumbled, fog forming in the air with every word she spoke. Her friends didn't pay any heed to her words and started to move forward. They crossed a pond situated at the end of the garden which seemed to be frozen due to the cold. 

"Vic, it's your 19th birthday we had to do something adventurous." Noah, her cousin and friend said, shrugging, while they all admired the view in front of them. The five of them stood in front of the main gate of the castle of death, as it is named. The silver ancient gate shined under the full moon night making Victoria shudder a little. 

"But why do I have to be the one to do this?" Victoria whined, looking uncertainly at the gate. Her gut feeling was telling her to run away and never look back in here again. But some part of her still wanted to go into the castle, as if an invisible force was pulling her towards it.

"Maybe because you chose to do the dare." Noah shrugged and moved to inspect the gate.

"I really should've chosen truth. At least I would've been asleep now, not outside this haunted castle in the cold night." Victoria muttered under her breath, her eyes scanning her surroundings for any type of threat. 

"Tori, please let's go inside. I really want to know how the castle looks from the inside." Patricia tried to persuade her, bouncing up and down on her toes looking excited, just like children do when they're outside the candy store. Patricia has always been interested in ancient places and monuments, leading her to take history as a major subject in college.

"Guys, I agree with Tori, we should really not go inside. It looks kinda creepy. What if there's something in there?" Helen whispered, her voice coated with fear of the unknown and wrapped her arms around her middle when a gust of wind blew past her. Helen had always been the superstition one in their group, she had always believed that there are other creatures besides the humans but her friends never took her words seriously. 

"Helen there are no ghosts in there and if you're still scared, then you can always hold my hands you know." This time Ryder spoke, his voice coated with amusement but there was a tinge of seriousness in it. Helen blushed and looked away from him. They both were madly in love with each other but both were too scared to make the first move. 

"Now let's move before someone sees us," Noah said, pushing the castle doors open. The doors made a screeching sound as Noah opened them and Victoria cringed at the sound.

"You know we are trespassing, right? And you know about my medical condition too. What if I cut myself and bled to death? I swear if something happens to me and I die, my ghost will haunt you till your death." Victoria hissed, moving closer to Noah when she saw broken glass pieces scattered around the white marbled floor.

"Vic, you know I'll not let anything harm you. Here, let me hold your hands." He said, moving forward and holding her hands. Victoria looked down and moved her fingers over the skin of Noah's hand and sighed. If only she could feel something. She knew he truly meant what he said, after all, he was the one who saved her life when they were ten.

Victoria opened her mouth to say something but Patricia's scream cut her off.

"Get it off! Get that nasty thing off me. Now!" Patricia screamed when a spider fell on her hair. Noah sighed, shaking his head he went towards her and helped her to remove the spider out of her hair. After he successfully removed the spider, all of them looked at each other for a second and started laughing. 

"Tric, by the way, you were screaming someone might think we were either trying to kill or r**e you in this isolated place." Noah teased her, playing with a strand of hair that has fallen in front of her face. By looking at him anyone could say that he likes her, except her. She never realised that he likes her, resulting in them fighting like cats and dogs.

"Noah, I guess your herpes got to your brain. Make sure to take some medicine for it." Patricia retorted back and smirked slightly while Noah glared at her.

"Okay, you two. Cut it out. As amusing your lover's quarrel is, we have to find it soon and finish my dare. So let's move now." Victoria said, and moved forward in the castle before Noah or Patricia could say anything. 

"Guys, I think it must be upstairs in his bedroom. I had heard in the news saying it was in his bedroom so it must be there now." Ryder said gesturing towards a staircase that went upwards. They all started walking towards the staircase when suddenly Victoria saw something moving behind the large curtains near the window. She looked there again but there was nothing. 

"It must be the wind." She muttered softly and moved forward with her friends upstairs. As they moved forward they saw many paintings and portraits of the kings and queens of the castle.

Victoria stopped in front of a huge painting hung at the end of the staircase. It was a portrait of a man and a woman in their 30s with a boy who looked like he's ten years old. As she continued to observe the portrait, Patricia came and stood beside her.

"It is the painting of King Maxmagnus, his first wife Queen Maria and their son Prince Dimitrius who was famously known as the prince of death," Patricia said, going into the history of the Livingston's. 

Victoria frowned hearing the endearment and asked, "Prince of death?" 

Patricia turned toward her and said, "Yes. Prince of death. His merciless killings got him this name. He was a one-man army. He once killed a group of 100 people who were trying to attack the King and he didn't even break a sweat." Victoria visibly shivered after hearing it all.

"How do you even know all this?" Victoria asked, looking at her friend who just smirked at her.

"Babe, I'm the topper of my history class. How do you think I got the position?" Patricia joked and Victoria just laughed, shaking her head.

"By screwing the professor for marks?" Victoria said jokingly and Patricia glared at her.

"You little-" Patricia started speaking but a voice called out to them from the other side of the corridor, getting their attention and successfully cutting her off.

"Tori, Pat, come here. I think we found his room." Ryder called out to them from the other end of the corridor and Victoria and Patricia both moved towards them in hurried steps as they all made their way inside the room.

The walls of the room were painted mint green colour with spots of black colour in it and there was a king-sized bed in the middle of the room. There was also a balcony with a great view. Victoria sighed looking at the balcony. She had always wanted a balcony in her room.

"Where is it?" Victoria asked, getting rid of the unnecessary thoughts, her eyes scanning the room to find the thing that they came here for. They zeroed on the wall across the bed and she started walking towards it as the floor crinkled under her foot. 

"Tori where are you going?" Noah asked but Victoria didn't seem to hear it. She walked towards the wall in little steps and placed a hand in the middle of it. Suddenly the wall shook and she backed away a little. The wall opened like a door and there was a secret room inside. There it was, The silver piano, for which they came here. For which they trespassed in the middle of the night.

"Wow."

"Whoa"

"What the-"

"Hell"

The other four exclaimed as Victoria walked into the other room. She walked straight towards the piano, ignoring everything. It was like as if she was possessed, she couldn't stop herself. As if the piano was enticing her to touch it. 

Victoria glided her fingers on the piano and felt a spark of electricity running up her hands. She gasped in disbelief, she wasn't able to fathom how she felt it. As she had pressed another key on the piano, Ryder said, "Tori, make it quick. We have to go soon."

Victoria nodded getting out of the trance she had fallen into and sat on the chair with her back straight and head down as she let her fingers glide over the keys.

As the notes hit their ears, everyone was transfixed on the beauty of her fingers dancing on the ivory keys. The dark wispy hair from the beautiful face moving with an unnatural wind.

With each slight nod of her head, her spirit became almost an aura. These keys, to her, felt like touch to a lover. Almost asleep, possessed, they all waited on the climax.

The whole room went away and it became only her and the music. Everything around was a blur, a transcending experience. Finally, as the last beautiful note hit and the resonance filled. A breath of air was both replaced with joy and sadness. 

Everyone's eyes were frozen on her and the piano in awe as if it's the most beautiful thing in the world.

"Wow, when did you learn to play like that?" Helen was the first one to break the silence.

Victoria frowned when the question registered in her mind. When did she learn to play this note? Never. She had never played anything like that. But still, she played it like she knew the notes of the music by heart.

"I don't know, Helen. It felt like I have played it before but I don't remember…" She trailed off and Helen frowned and adjusted her spectacles, which she did when she thought about something.

"Guys, let's just go now. It's nearly 2 am. We'll discuss this later at home." Patricia said and everyone nodded, agreeing with her.

Soon they left the room and as they reached the staircase, the floor suddenly started to shake and it just felt like the commencement of an earthquake.

Noah clutched Patricia's hand and Ryder clutched Helen by the waist. Victoria was clutching the pillar on the side of the staircase and Noah moved towards her but before he could reach her, Victoria's foot slipped and she fell down the stairs.

She could hear her friends scream for her, but she didn't know why they were screaming. She didn't feel anything but she wasn't able to get up too. She opened her eyes and looked down at herself and saw her knees bleeding and.

'I think I'm hurt.' She thought, slightly of losing her consciousness. 

But before she passed out she saw something or someone with shiny golden-red eyes above her whispering something 

"âme sœur" it whispered.