NIGHTWALKERS

CHAPTER TWO

The old car finally groaned to a halt at the front gate of the Salvador estate. Davina stepped out into the humid night air, her mother like a silent shadow right behind her. They hadn't stood there for five seconds before two women appeared. They were clearly servants, moving with a weird, robotic promptness that made it feel like they'd been hovering behind the gate, just waiting for the engine to die. Without a word, they grabbed the bags and headed toward the house.

​Davina stood by the gate, her eyes scanning the compound. It was massive-the kind of space that felt too big for its own good. Dark, big trees were everywhere, their thick canopies choking out the stars and making the air feel cramped and suffocating.

​The mansion itself was built of dark wood, looming at the end of the drive like a silent observer. It had a total "nature gone wrong" energy-overgrown, predatory, and buried in a silence so thick it felt like a warning. Maybe it was just because it was night, but Davina thought everything looked like a graveyard at 2:00 AM.

​"Let's go inside," her mother said, already moving. She didn't look back to see if Davina was following; she just walked toward the dark house, leaving Davina to trail behind through the shadows of the trees.

​They reached the massive brown door, the wood looking even heavier up close. Standing there was a man dressed in all black, his face twisted into a scowl that didn't hide his disgusted look.

​"You're just coming?" he snapped, his voice cutting through the quiet night. "Did you want the whole town to send you an appeal before you came to see your father?"

​Carissa didn't look him in the eye. "Not now, Victor. I'm really not in the mood for all this." She brushed past him and walked straight through the door.

​Davina stopped, her eyes locking onto the man for a few long seconds. He didn't blink while staring back at her with a cold, unreadable oppression. Without saying a word to him, she followed her mother inside.

​The living room was huge. It was well-furnished, with everything in its right place, but it felt cold. She walked slowly, the heels of her shoes muffled by the floor as she drifted toward a shelf. She let the tips of her fingers trail along the objects lined up there, feeling the light layer of dust and the smooth surfaces of things she didn't recognize.

​A whole life had been happening here-people, furniture, history. An entire world tucked away in this creepy, tree-filled estate. And her mother had never mentioned a single word of it to her. Not once.

She stopped when she reached the wall of portraits. Her grandfather's image took up the center spot-the biggest one of the bunch. In it, George Salvador looked genuinely happy, a hat perched on his head and a wide smile on his face. Beneath the frame, a gold plaque read: Mayor George Salvador.

Davina lingered there, a strange emptiness settling in her chest. She couldn't help but wonder how things would have been if she'd actually known him. Would her life be different? Would she have grown up in a house like this instead of being kept in the dark?

She moved to the next portrait, her fingers still trailing along the cold wood of the wall.

This one was more casual. It was her grandfather again, but he was posing with another man. They looked like best friends caught in a private moment, leaning back with a couple of beers as if they had all the time in the world. They looked relaxed, almost untouchable.

Davina stared at the stranger's face in the photo, having no idea that this was the man who had signed the order for Ashley's life to be taken. To her, it was just an old memory of two friends. To the world, it was the beginning of a nightmare."

"Davina..."

The soft voice called out. Davina turned slowly. Her mother was standing there, framed by the dimness of the hallway, watching her with an expression that was hard to pin down. Davina searched her face for a sign of grief, but all she saw was the same weary mask Carissa always wore. She couldn't tell if her mother was mourning a father, or just exhausted from the weight of her own lies.

"Let's go upstairs, sweetie," her mother said, stepping closer, her hand reaching out tentatively. "You must be tired. We've had a rough-"

"So you're just going to pretend like everything is okay?" Davina's voice cut through her mother's words like a knife. She stood her ground, the oppressive silence of the mansion making her words ring out. Was she serious? After reminding her mother that grandfather had died eighteen years ago-a lie her mother had dropped as if it were a weather report-Carissa hadn't uttered a single word for the rest of the trip.

Davina felt a sharp heat rising in her chest. Didn't she deserve at least a shred of the truth? After being kept in the cage for her entire life, she was expected to just walk into a guest room and go to sleep as if they were visiting a distant relative for the weekend?

"Davina-"

"Talk to me, Mum. What was the lie all about? How come you didn't tell me you had a family?" Davina insisted, cutting her mother off again. Her voice was trembling, fueled by the frustration of years of silence suddenly being shattered by the reality of this massive estate.

"Davina, it's complicated," Carissa said, her voice strained.

"What's complicated? You lied to me this-"

"Davina, that's enough, please!"

The outburst echoed through the high-ceilinged room, leaving a sharp, ringing silence in its wake. Carissa looked at her daughter, her composed mask finally fracturing.

"I just lost my father and it's a heavy weight on my chest right now," she said, her voice cracking as she wiped at the tears that had begun to fall. "So please, I'm begging you. Do me the courtesy of respecting my feelings right now."

Carissa didn't wait for a rebuttal. She turned and walked off, her footsteps heavy as she headed upstairs. Arguing was a luxury she didn't have the energy for, and she left Davina standing alone in the middle of the room-surrounded by the painted smiles of a family she was only just meeting.

The silence in the living room felt heavier than it had before. Davina stood frozen, her mother's shout still ringing in her ears. In all her life, she had never been yelled at like that-never seen her mother angry. She needed fresh air.

Davina headed upstairs, her feet moving on autopilot until she found herself on the massive terrace overlooking the estate. She stepped out onto the balcony, the night air hitting her skin like a cold cloth. The breeze began to soothe the anger in her chest, and she leaned her weight against the railing, staring out into the dark, sprawling compound.

Then, the air vanished from her lungs.

​She felt like a hook had snagged the back of her ribcage and jerked her entire soul forward. The dark landscape slammed toward her. Miles of sprawling estate grounds compressed into a single heartbeat, throwing her vision straight to the far tree-line by the front gates.

​There, cutting through the shadows, was a pair of glowing blue eyes.

To Davina, they didn't feel or look human. They were piercing, and pinned directly to her own. Davina gasped, but no sound came out. It wasn't just that she was looking at them-whatever was standing in the dark was looking back, peeling through her skin, counting the flow of her pulse from miles away. The distance between them vanished entirely as her focus locked onto a sharp, devilish smirk cutting through the dark.

​Her heart beats violently against her ribs. She tried to blink, to tear her eyes away, but her muscles refused to move. She was entirely pinned, paralyzed under a gaze that felt heavy, cold, and predatory.

​"Who are you?" she whispered, the words dying on her lips.

The only answer was the faint, icy bleed of blue light before the eyes vanished into the trees, leaving her alone in the dark.