DARKEST ( Supernatural Beginnings Series) Book Three

Wolf Council Part Five

Vernice

A shiver ran down my spine as I approached the dark and creepy-looking basement door. I was Vice-chair and a very capable adult, but this particular place in the house always made me feel so uncomfortable. Connie squeezed my hand and a surprising amount of calm energy flowed through me. I turned to look at her in question but I have in many ways always known about Connie’s second ability outside of her Hunter’s blood. The fact that she could easily tap into it in all places was a big tell of the extent to which she had been trained.

I welcomed the calm energy as it soothed my nerves significantly. Mom, Wolfram, and the others were not far behind us as all eyes came to that door. The exterior of the door is weathered and cracked, with peeling paint that once might have been a pale shade of blue. Now, it's a sickly gray, and the wood felt damp and warped under my touch.

“Okay, if the door alone is making me feel the creeps, then I totally get why Auntie doesn’t want to come here,” Mariana said with a shiver. Alexis swiftly put an arm around Mariana, bringing her close to her side. Mariana looked up at Alexis and smiled. The look they shared with one another was enviable but she was my niece and I couldn’t have been more happy for her.

Sometimes, even fate doesn’t always get it right. I was the unlucky one percent that fell through the cracks when my mate turned out to be Darius Claw, Harold’s cousin. Rejecting him was the best decision for everyone involved.

However, it didn't stop him from pestering me from time to time, but that was nothing compared to what dangers would arise from our bond. Wolfram and my mother Tamzin were an example of second chance mates being not a myth at all. I guess those two were waiting to resolve the conflicts here in the third world before accepting one another. All in all, Wolfram had become my father years ago after my Dad and his wife Calista had died.

It was strange seeing our parents together in that picture, but things became clear when I noticed that cabin in the background. It was in that place that my nightmares began. Replaying in my mind like lyrics to a song one can’t forget.

“Here goes nothing,” I said with a deep breath, reaching out my free hand toward the knob. The doorknob is cold to the touch, just like the sudden chill on my skin. It creaked ominously as I turned it. The door itself seems to groan in protest as it swings open, as if reluctant to reveal the secrets hidden within.

A gust of wind flows over everyone at the entrance to the basement once the door is completely open. There was no need to explain as we all experienced shivers simultaneously.

“Damn, that’s eerie,” Harold whispered, all of us drawn to the staircase leading into the basement. The stairs leading into the basement are steep and uneven, their wooden surfaces worn and splintered.

Taking a step forward with Connie, we were the first to walk down the steps carefully. Dim, flickering lights cast eerie shadows on the walls, making the descent even more foreboding. The walls are covered in peeling wallpaper, once floral, but now a mottled mess of faded patterns. It's as if the very walls themselves are trying to escape the memories contained within.

The closer we stepped to the bottom, the more melancholic I felt. Stopping in my footsteps. The air became thick and suffocating, almost strangling my non-existent courage. I clutched the handrail tightly, trying to ignore the unsettling sensation crawling up my spine. This was it. They would see it soon and know everything. They would know that my Dad and Calista’s death was all my fault.

“Breath Vernice, it's okay, whatever that’s triggering you, it will be okay,” whispered Connie in a soothing voice again. I felt my mother’s presence as well as she began to rub small soft circles on my back like she used to when I was young and suffered panic attacks from my nightmares.

Never once had she asked me about my nightmares. She always focused on comforting me. Tears brimmed in my eyes but I refused to let them fall. Once she knew where the nightmares stemmed from, would she blame me? Would she disown me as her daughter? If I hadn’t gotten sick, let alone come out, would my Dad and Calista still be alive today?

Finally, we all reached the bottom of the stairs. What was safe before us was something that would make one's heart race. The basement had transformed into a nightmarish forest grove, resembling the grounds of a long-abandoned camp.

“It’s exactly like the camp where we found the globes in Lexi.”

“Not exactly like that, look there,” Alexis said as she pointed at something in the distance.

The trees in this forest are twisted and gnarled, their branches reaching out like skeletal fingers. The ground is covered in a thick layer of dead leaves, their dry rustling echoing in the stillness. Nearby, there's a decrepit cabin, its wooden planks warped and rotting. The windows are shattered, and the roof sags under the weight of years of neglect. It was like we were brought to this place in time.

“Everyone, we must stay close together,” Wolfram and Harold said at the same time in a low voice. We began to walk through the forest toward the cabin. The familiar voices of the man and a woman can be heard faintly, their words indecipherable, as though they are trapped in a loop of their own making. We couldn’t see them, but their presence was undeniable, their whispers sending a shiver down our spine.

“How could this be? Calista and Mason had come to the second world before they died.” Wolfram said. His eyes showed bewilderment but soon changed to thoughtfulness. I knew he was thinking about that photo once again. Trish and Max Fiery had something to do with them being here on that day, but what had happened to them and why weren’t they in my memory as well? They had to be here to meet them, but why were we looking at the cabin instead of the vacation house where everything I witnessed happened to them?

“I don’t think I can go any further,” I said, pausing my steps toward the window of the cabin.

“We have already come this far, Auntie. Remember why we all came here? If you stop now, whoever is behind this will win. Don’t be afraid of what you will face because you do have us here to face it with you.” Alexis said adamantly. I didn’t know why but I felt she knew more than what she let on and her encouragement towards me to face this had to have a conclusion behind it.

Nodding my head, I looked at Connie, who had kept her promise and never let go of my hand. She smiled a beautiful smile like sunlight in the spring and my heart surged with the human kinship love that had grown between the time we had known each other. I had yet to meet her fellow sisters and I wasn’t going to lie in my curious intrigue about them. I had more subordinates than friends here in the Wolf Council choosing to stay by myself. Suddenly I felt like facing this was also my way out and into something more extraordinary.

“Let’s do this then,” I said, continuing my steps forward. The atmosphere became heavy with unease around us, a sense that something terrible happened here long ago and that the memories of that event were trapped within those walls. It was an obvious spell to push us back, making Alexis's first choice of the second clue here correct. If I hadn’t been so stuck in my emotions for years past since my recruitment to the Council, maybe I could have found what had been hiding here all along and the third world would be like it is now.

I shook my head as we reached the cabin window that began to clear before us, giving us a closer look inside. On the outside stood the cabin of the camp, but inside it showed the interior of the vacation house. Tears glistened in my eyes again, now they would bear witness to the images that tormented my mind and heart in the basement of this memory house. The air is tinged with a bitter, metallic scent, and a faint, haunting melody drifts through the air, as though carried by a ghostly wind.

The scene unfolds through the window of the cabin in the heart of the forest, changing once more to the mood inside the house, its glass panes speckled with raindrops, refracting the dim light of the moon.

“Thanks for this, Calista, and for coming here on short notice,” said Beta Mason, my father, as he met with Calista at the bottom of the stairs.

“How long have we known each other, Beta Mason? There is no need to thank me, Vernie is just like my daughter and this was a close call to her almost being taken by those people.”