Veil of secrets: mortal's quest

Echoes in the dark

The realm of dreams.

This is the place where everyone can rest, even the restless souls.

Deeper you go in this realm, deeper secrets shall you reveal.

"Mother!"

"Midnight child."

"No!"

"Stay away."

"Please, I...don't...want to do this."

High pitched voices of children and a few lower case voices echoed trought the realm of dreams, which followed by the same humming and other voices, that hid many stories behind them.

It was already hard to tell if this was all a dream in Reina's weak and fading consciousness or is it all real, but one thing for sure was that Reina still was holding onto her life.

There was still a hope she will survive and solve every secret, that she wanted to solve, but for now...she's deep in the past of the Gauthier Manor's existence.

Once Reina reached into the depts of realm of dreams, she saw a figure of a woman, that started speaking to her.

"Let the past reveal before you, child. With these words, I, Mellicent, the witch of the full moon, bless you with my magic, so you could see the past, whenever you wish to know the truth. Use it wisely and in the right moments."

After these words, this strange woman disappeared and suddent current of light flashed right in front of Reina.

When the light settled down, there was the same woman again, but in Reina's aunt's office, which was now very neatly cleaned and organized and it har the same paintings where Reina's aunt was painted, but instead of her being in the paintings, it was this woman.

This seemed to be a scene from past, somwhere in the middle ages. Woman was dressed in luxury clothing that was decorated with pieces of gold.

At this moment woman was busy with paperwork, when someone knocked on the office's door to get her attention.

"Mrs. Gauthier, may I enter?"

These words revealed that this woman was the first owner of the Gauthier Manor and she looked pretty similar to Seira, Reina's aunt, even though such possibility was rare occurance, especially when no one from Reina's relatives ever mentioned that they might inherited a Manor from their ancestor, which story was still unknown.

While Reina was questioning about the deep secret that her family has kept about Gauthier Manor, before her appeared another figure, but that was nothing human, rather a spirit.

"I'm going to neither introduce myself, nor answer your questions, but one thing I will say for sure. You're dead."

The straight forward words from this dark spirit finally make Reina speak, just to interupt her yet again.

"What are y-"

"Anyways...the power you hold within yourself. I need it, so I give you a choice."

After some dramatic pause, the dark spirit stretched out it's hands before Reina, while holding two spheres, that were in different colors.

"Choose. Red one or yellow one?"

Before Reina chose one of the spheres, she looked at the dark spirit and decided to ask one question, even though the previous warning.

"Uhh...how should I know which one is which?"

This question surely cought the spirit off guard, that it even seemed to...get embarrased?

"Oh, right...I forgot to mention."

After it cleared it's vocal cord, it spoke, but not with the same confidence as before.

"The red one means, you're going back to human world as a second chance to do everything you needed to do or whatever. The yellow one, means you're officialy dead."

"So you want to say that I'm dead right now, but not officialy?" Reina commented, which slightly pissed off the dark spirit, so it just shoved the spheres closer to her, making her choose one, which she did.

Once Reina chose one of the spheres, a white light appeared everywhere, meaning she's now going either back to earth or to the underworld.

Soon after the light slowly started to fade away from her surroundings, Reina finally could open her eyes and once she did so, she saw slightly familiar ceiling, which was neither luxurious, nor old.

As she sat up from being on the soft matress of the bed, she looked around for a while, just to realize this place was her own room.

Did she finally got out of that strange place, called Gauthier Manor? If so, then maybe everything was just a nightmare, that seemed so real, that she even felt it with her whole soul and body?

While she wondered what might have actually happened, she heard a knock on her door, which was strange, since no one did that, because her mom always just called her down stairs and her little brother simply bursted into her room without any announcement, so she decided to wait for a moment, just to see what will happen if she doesn't answer to the door.

There was a lot of knocking and when Reina didn't answered, it got more intense and agresive, even to the point where it seemed like someone is trying to break down her room's door, just to get to her.

"Who is there?" Reina asked, after the knocking didn't stopped, even if she knew it was a bad idea, but at least no one banged on her door like a maniac after she answered.

Once the knocking stopped, she thought, no..she hoped, that whatever that was behind that door was now gone, but instead, she felt some presence behind her, like something or someone was looking at her from behind and she couldn't quite understand if that was from the outside of her window or was it right behind her, but she for sure hoped it was far away.

Reina didn't even dared to turn around to see whatever was there, because she was scared, who wouldn't be after everything that happened at the Gauthier Manor?

"Wake up. Stop dreaming of a place, that you never belonged at." Some low voice suddenly annouced, but it seemed more like a rushed whisper, than actual threat.

When this voice said that Reina doesn't belong in her own house, she stayed quiet, since she knows that she had always felt like she doesn't belong among believers of God, but still...it was her family, not someone else's.

"I do belong with my fam-" Reina wanted to say, but then a dark and gloomy hand covered her mouth, while the dark figure itself leaned close to Reina's ear to whisper: "Stop being like this. You know you have never been able to be free, then why do you resist being in a place, that you belong to? You're a freak just like them. You're a monster, no matter how much you try to deny it."

As the dark figure whispered it to Reina, Reina herself looked in the mirror, that was in the corner of her room, just to see that this dark figure was actually she herself. Her conscience, that reminded Reina of the fact, that she has never been an ideal child for her parents, she was just a failure, that dared to be opposite of her whole family, which believed in God, while she was some random and worthless atheist.

"Come on. We both know we need to go back to that Manor, because it's only place were you're wanted. They need you just like a tool for their broken property, but it's the best that you can offer, because you're not worth anything more than a rusty nail with a blunt end."

Every single word that came from her conscience was exactly what Reina was made to believe, since the real dream was her mother actually caring about her, so when she called her mom, she never actually had called her, because her mother never picked up the phone.

Reina grew up alone, while her mother and little brother hated her and only used her, when they needed something to be done. All this time Reina lived in delusion of having perfect family, even while knowing it's not true.

If only she chose the other sphere, she could have died in peace and never return back to the harsh reality, which she was so eager to escape all this time, but constantly failed, until she got to the Gauthier Manor, which was meant for her. A freak in a house full of different kind of freaks.