Her eyes were wide with confusion and fear. My red sword rested under her chin. I moved it away quickly. "Why did you sneak up on me?" I asked, sweat forming on my brow. "I didn't. I said your name like five times, you never answered." I ran my fingers through my hair. "I'm sorry, I'm just really out of it I guess." She gave me a soft look. "What were you doing here?" She asked. That's when I realized it. That feeling, those things were gone. They weren't surrounding me anymore. "I don't know." I answered. "I don't know." I mumbled under my breath. A sick feeling began to grow in my stomach. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw. "How did you know I was coming here?" I asked, my voice slightly wavered. "I saw how you looked leaving the hotel room, I knew something was wrong and I followed you." I opened my eyes and looked at Addy. "Thanks for following me, sorry for almost hurting you." I scratched the back of my neck, some part of me felt off. "You look on edge. Are you alright?" She asked, her hand reached out towards me. I jumped back, stumbling on an root. "I just need a moment." I said with a shaken laugh. She lowered her hand and hugged her body. "Can you at least tell me why you were drawn here?" I thought for a moment. "It was like a rope was tied around my waist and pulled, hard. I just followed the pull, and it lead me here." I looked around us, the ash filled street was sad to see. But something told me that there were secrets buried under the ash. "Well, where do you feel the tug coming from?" Addy asked. I shrugged. "Right here, it lead me here than went away." I lied. As much as I could trust Addy, something told me she couldn't trust me. "Well, how about we go back to town?" I smiled weakly. "I'll go in just a moment, I wanna look around." Addy nodded, and with that turned and walked towards the exit. After she vanished from sight I waited a couple seconds. Then began digging. I scooped up ash and threw it to the side, my hands stained grey almost immediately. Then it hit again, the tug. I closed my eyes as I felt it get stronger and stronger. My feet began to move on their own. I sprinted off in a random direction, the forest seemed colder. Darker then I last remembered it. After a few minutes of running, I stopped. My breath hitched in my throat. The old, creaky, worn down cabin stared back at me. I was supposed to rebuild it, live in it. With a shaky breath, I stepped towards the rotting building. The door opened with its familiar creak, this time it felt more like a warning than a welcoming. The wood planks that laid out the floor groaned and bent down trying its hardest to not break. I stopped, the tug came again, but it pulled me down. My sword formed in my hand, I was slowly getting better at doing that. I raised the sword over my head and brought it down on the wood. It felt like I was slicing through paper. I got on my hands and knees and began digging. A pile of dirt began to pile up beside me, then I felt something. It was cold and felt hard, sweat dripped off my chin. I dug up the object, a small metal piece poked out of a tightly wrapped object. The cloth around it was worn and damp from soil. I felt it become warmer in my hands. It fit in my hand, I wrapped my fingers around it. The cloth showed a strange outline of the object. It was around the size of a pocket knife, but slightly bigger. I put it in my front jean pocket, using my shirt to cover the half that poked out. I quickly left the cabin and sprinted to the exit. I stopped before the exit and wiped the sweat from my face and took a deep breath. My hands shook slightly, I clenched my hands into fists. I walked through the barrier, Addy jumped up from the ground. "Did you find anything?" She asked. My throat felt dry, I licked my chapped lips. "No, guess it was just a fluke." Addy looked disappointed as she lowered her gaze to the ground. "Oh, I'm sorry you didn't find whatever it was that drew you here." I couldn't answer, my body wouldn't let me. I already felt bad enough for lying, so I could only nod my head and fake a sad expression. "Let's go back to the hotel, I hear your grandma is making us some stew tonight." I smiled and nodded, I held back the urge to puke. We made our way back to the hotel, gram and mom greeted us in the lobby. "Are you doing okay Jacob?" Gram asked me, I could only nod and smile. "I'm gonna go freshen up." I had to fight of the squeak that threatened to come out in my lies. I quickly took the elevator up to my floor. I practically ran to my hotel room and entered it, slamming the door behind me. I dashed to the bathroom and hurled my guts out. My body wanted to collapse in on itself. I was never a good lier, I never had a reason to lie. The object poked into my hip. I cleaned my face and flushed the toilet. I took the object out of my pocket and put it on the sink. I didn't know what I felt, my hands shook from fear, my eyes looked at the object with curiosity, and my legs stayed still with patience. With a shaky hand I unwrapped the object. I stared down at the dirty handle, a small skull stared back. I carefully picked the handle up, I turned the water faucet on and cleaned the dirt away. I took a towel and dried it off. As I slowly peeled the towel away, the now clean handle looked somehow worse. The handle itself was pitch black, wrapped in some kind of leathery texture. The skull had a red ruby in the left eye, and what seemed to be a diamond in the right. The very tip of the handle sprouted upwards like horns. Curiosity hit me, I manifested my sword, the entire thing was a dark red. Suddenly the ruby in the skulls eye began to glow. The closer the two got, the brighter the ruby shined. I took a deep breath, hoping I was doing the right thing, and brought the two things together. A red light filled the room, a powerful feeling of energy surged through my arms along with pain. I was blasted backwards into the shower, my head hit the wall hard. I fell to the ground with a groan. I touched the back of my head, I didn't feel any blood. I looked up, floating in the air was my sword. But now the skull faced handle was attached to it. I watched as the horn-like tips of the handle wrapped around the blade. Securing it tightly. The skulls ruby eye shined brightly. The sword floated towards me, by vision started getting blurry. I reached out and grasped the handle. I could feel the energy coming off of it, but I didn't know if I should fear the energy or accept it. The sword slowly disappeared from sight, I leaned my head on the wall. My body aches and my mind was telling me I made a mistake. But everything slowly quieted, my eyes were heavy and began to shut. My arms and legs went numb, and I let myself fall.