Rays of sunlight passed through the curtains and into my eyes.
The birds were singing lightly outside.
I opened my eyes and admired my room like I do every day.
Except today I wasn't alone. My eyes wandered to gaze upon the man laying beside me.
His silky hair fell across his forehead. His chest gently rose and fell. His lashes gently kissed the top of his cheeks.
"I can feel you staring" he smirked, scooting a little closer to me, intertwining our legs.
His hard body was almost fused with mine.
I would feel his fingers gently caressing my back and thighs, where my tattoos were.
Ever since I got them, he's made that a habit.
Not that I'm complaining, I've come to welcome his gentle touches.
They're probably what I missed about him the most.
"and good morning to you" I smiled and went in for a kiss. His soft lips moved in sync with mine.
There was always this tingly feeling that I would never get used to.
Just before things got heated, Rayhan opened the door and I immediately covered my upper half.
"You really need to learn how to knock Rayhan"
"I'm sorry to interrupt-"
"no, you're not; could you leave? We were busy" Cyrus rolled his eyes with distaste.
"believe me, I don't want to be here either but it's important. It had to do with Bloodlake" his tone was grim.
Cyrus and I exchanged looks at each other.
For Rayhan to be serious, then there was a serious problem.
We got dressed as quickly as we could and went to meet everyone.
They were all seated at the round table with grim expressions on their faces.
What was going on?
"I still don't understand how all this happened. There was no one left alive after the war so…what's all this about?" King Nicolai let out a frustrated sigh.
"what happened?" Cyrus took the words out of my mouth.
Everyone looked like the world was about to end and that didn't help calm my rising nerves even in the slightest.
"well there's something going on at the Castle in Bloodlake. The magic we put around the area has picked up some kind of dark entity wandering around the castle" Darya explained.
"that's impossible. We made sure that entire area was abandoned before coming into conclusions!" I could tell from his tone of voice; Cyrus was becoming worried and worked up about this.
"so…what do we do?" Imogen asked.
"our best course of action is to go over there and apprehend it before it grows too powerful and becomes a threat"
"it's too risky! We don't even know how powerful that thing is" Eri opposed. She does have a point.
I paused before speaking again.
"true but IF it was too much of a threat, it would have escaped that barrier. The sooner we find out what it is, the sooner we can get rid of it and move on with our lives" I really didn't want any more drama but I guess life has other plans for me.
As expected, so it was decided; Cyrus, Imogen, Eri, Rayhan, Tamar and I would go into the Bloodlake castle.
Find out what that entity was and get back home.
Jackie was a bit upset about not including her in the mission.
She needed to stay alive and away from dangers like this.
Don't get me wrong; she could still handle herself but only towards certain things.
Cyrus was skeptical about be going back there because of what Hellen did to me but I reassured him I was fine.
After that, we all got dressed and opened a gate that would shorten our time of going there.
It was really quiet. The wind was dead and probably the birds as well.
There was also a menacing aura that was everywhere.
A bit of it felt familiar as much as it pains me to admit it.
"I don't like this at all" Imogen looked around. She was paranoid; we all were.
"neither do I so let's end this quickly" I closed my eyes and stretched my arms forward.
I was going to do a search to try and pinpoint where it was coming from.
Eri picked up on it and did the same.
The grounds were huge so it would be too much for me to cover alone.
There was nothing outside and from what I was getting, nothing inside as well.
I was thinking of stopping until I felt something that made me gasp for air.
It was quick and I thought it was probably from my imagination but when I saw it affected Eri too then knew I wasn't crazy.
"you felt it too?" she turned to face me; her hand was on her head. I simply nodded.
"I-it's coming from the dungeons; down below" of all places why did it have to be the dungeons?
What was all this?
We decided to go on foot as to check things we might overlook while using the gate.
We barley spoke as we walked there. The silence was anything from comfortable.
It was way too far from it. Cyrus was beside me the whole time, holding my hand as we descended down the stairs.
The air was thin and damp in here…as well as moist.
The stench was also something we couldn't endure.
We passed a few cells. Some had skeletons of victims that never managed to escape.
Others were empty with hints of dried blood.
Memories of what I faced back when I was captured flooded in making me uncomfortable.
It felt like it was just yesterday.
The pains I went through can't be totally forgotten.
It'll probably haunt me for the rest of my life.
"are you ok? We could stop if you want" Cyrus placed his hand on the small of my back when he noticed I had stopped walking.
There was a reassuring smile that lingered on his lips.
"y-yeah I'm fine, let's keep going" I shook it off. It was in the past.
The sooner I come to terms and burry it, the better.
We continued walking until we got to a door at the end of the tunnel.
It was painted red and looked really aged.
We all exchanged glances at each other.
Whatever was behind this door was the energy we had picked up when scanning the grounds.
The aura was stronger here.
A little too strong to handle if I'm being honest but I wasn't going to admit it to any of them; especially not Cyrus as I know how he would react.
The eerie silence was like a build up of a nightmare.
It felt like something horrible was going to attack us immediately we opened the door.
Tamar gently touched the door handle and we all got our guard up as to be ready.
Who knows the untold horrors behind that door?
He took one last glance at us before turning the handle and opening the door.
It seems weird to say this but I put my expectations a little too high for nothing.
Because it was entirely empty.
There wasn't dried blood anywhere or chains hanging on the wall like other cells.
This one was like it had never been used. The only thing that was there was a mirror.
It was in the shape of an oval and had a stand. It was really elongated.
We all walked into the room.
I feel our guard was still up but not as much as before we entered the room.
"is this it? You've got to be joking" Rayhan placed his hands on his hips, exhausted the entire situation.
It was annoying for the rest of us. We didn't leave Noie to get shaken up over nothing.
There was something off about this.
Like something we weren't seeing. I moved closer to attempt to touch it.
Then; quick images of some scenes flashed before my eyes.
It gave me a huge headache and it brought me to my knees.
And to make matters worse, they weren't even MY memories.
I was seeing people and events I had never seen before.
If these weren't mine then who did they belong to.
Where were they coming from?
Who's behind all of this? Or could be from the mirror?
"Lyra are you ok?" Eri and Cyrus were by my side and helped pull me up.
I haven't felt so weak in a long amount of time.
"y-yeah I'm fine" I smiled back at them and look towards the mirror. "what are we going to do about this?" Imogen sighed.
"as much as it pains me to say this, we need to take it home to have it looked at. It's too dangerous to leave it here. We could have sorcerers put a protective spell around it. I feel like there's more to this mirror than we know about" And that was that.
I opened a gate back to the castle.
We explained everything to the king and queen and they immediately had it locked up.
They felt like that was the end of it all but I know there was more to this.
And there was only one person who could help me.
It's time I visit my mother's garden.
It HAS been a while since I came here.
Besides at this point, she was the only one who could help us at this point.
I've missed the gentleness her garden brought.
With that I moved and sat and placed my hand on her tree.
"mother. I feel it's time we had a really long conversation. I need your help. Please answer me"
"I will always be here when you need me. Tell me what troubles you" I knew I was going to be here for a while so I readjusted myself and leaned on the tree instead.
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