The lost pendant gnawed at Aria — a disturbing mystery in a house full of mysteries. As she stood at the center of the living room, she felt her heart pumping, and her eyes searched for any possible clues of disturbance. All was as it had been before, except that the pendant was gone. The door was still locked, and the windows closed. And still, there'd been an intruder.
Aria's mind was full of questions. Who could have taken it? And how? There was no sight of anyone when she made her way back from the attic, and she did not hear any noise apart from the one made by her cautious footsteps. The house was old, full of creaks and groans, yet it had been so still since she stepped in. The house seemed to be in suspense, expecting something.
Not satisfied with her findings, she decided to go through the house one more time, beginning with the downstairs. She went round the house from one room to the other, searching for anything that could have been left in closets, cupboards, and other parts of the house. But she found nothing strange in them. It was as though the pendant had suddenly disappeared into thin air.
Getting annoyed and irritable, Aria went back to the living room. She stood by the window, looking outside into the garden, which was still obscured by the mist. It had slowed down to a patter, and the deep gray of the dusk stretched shadows out on the lawn. The trees that were planted at the border of the area stood motionless like guards with their branches dancing in the wind.
As she watched, something moved within the mist—just a flicker of movement, barely perceptible. She stopped breathing for a second and concentrated to try and see who it was. It was the same tall man she saw standing outside the café yesterday. He appeared to be staring at the house and was very stiff, as though he were frozen.
Without thinking, Aria reached for her coat and went toward the door. She stood irresolutely for seconds before she moved out into the clammy air of the evening. The fog wispily wrapped her each time she stepped on the ground and dampened the noises of the surrounding reality. The figure stood still in the periphery of her field of view.
"Hey!" Aria sent out a greeting, and although she sounded scared, her tone had authority in it. "Who are you? What do you want?"
He didn't move; he didn't speak. He merely stood there like a formless object. Aria got scared, but she shook off the feeling, gathered her strength, and walked straight towards the man who followed her every step.
The closer she got, the fog started to descend and envelop her view. The trees grew taller, and the branches came down like monstrous hands of an unseen force intent on grabbing her. The chilly air of winter came, and each time Aria exhaled, fog covered the air before her. She was close now, close enough to see more into the shadows; the figure in front of her had a male body, long and muscular, and one could not see his face.
"Who are you?" Aria asked again, and her voice sounded shrill. "Why are you following me?"
The man finally moved; he turned his head a little to one side as if giving thought to her words. As he spoke, his voice was bass, melodic, and somehow familiar. "You shouldn't be here, Aria."
The casual way he said her name struck fear into her. She was puzzled about how he knew who she was. She tried to recognize the owner of the voice but could not remember it, like a memory of a dream that is just beyond grasp.
"Who are you?" she said again, but stressed the words more this time than she did before. "How do you know my name?"
The man stepped forward, and Aria moved back a step. It was foggy, and one could hardly see more than a few distances in front. His face was still hidden, but she could sense he was looking at her; his stare was disconcerting.
"You have to go; you have to get out of this place!" "Before it's too late," he warned.
"Too late for what?" Aria demanded. "I don't understand what you are talking about."
"There are things in Wolvesbane Hollow that you don't know." "Things that are best left untouched"
Frustration was clearly written all over Aria's face. "I'm not leaving until I get some answers. My grandmother—"
"Your grandmother did this to protect you," the man said, interrupting me; his voice had gotten a little softer. "But now that you are here, there is no going back. The veil is weakening, and if it tears..."
He stopped in the middle of the sentence, possibly because he felt he said too much. Aria's heart raced, and she could scarcely breathe; she felt a mix of fear and curiosity driving her to press for more.
"If it breaks, what?" she asked almost in a whisper.
The man didn't answer. He only withdrew, becoming more and more obscured by the fog around him. Fear overwhelmed Aria as soon as she understood that he was going to leave.
"Stop!" she shouted out loud as she followed him. "Don't go!"
But the man disappeared entirely in the mist and penetrated it with his body. In a matter of seconds, he vanished from sight, and Aria was alone in the deserted garden covered with thick fog. She looked intensely at the place where the stranger had vanished for several seconds, bewildered by what had just happened.
Who was he? How did he know so much about her and her family? And what did he mean by the veil thinning? The cryptic warning added to the mysteries surrounding Wolvesbane. Hollow, Aria felt that she was still in the dark about everything.
Feeling cold and still in fear, Aria turned around and headed back to the house. The thick mist surrounded her like a fog trying to embrace her. After she came closer to the front door, she stopped for some time and looked back. The garden was empty; that figure has since vanished into the thin air.
Back inside, the warmth of the house failed to dispel the coldness that she felt within her. Aria's thoughts were a whirlwind of confusion and fear, but one thing was clear: she was in the middle of something far bigger than she had ever imagined. The secrets her grandmother had kept were slowly coming out, and Aria was right in the middle of everything.
She entered the living room and looked at the table where she had left the pendant. The fact that it has gone troubled her, but now dwarfed by her encounter with the strange man. His warning echoed in her mind: The veil is thinning, and if it breaks...
Aria could not understand what that meant, but she was sure she would soon understand it. Letters, map, the pendant—she was sure all these are linked. The man in the mist was right about one thing: She couldn't leave. Not now. Not when the possibility of getting the truth was as near as the edge of a finger.
Undaunted, Aria decided that her investigation had to carry on. She would search the house one more time to find out what she had not seen earlier. There had to be more hints, more solutions hidden in these old walls.
As she was climbing up the stairs to the attic, she realized that she needed to study the town itself to understand the mysteries. Wolvesbane Hollow was an ancient area that undoubtedly had lots of history and some hidden stories. Perhaps there might be somebody in the town who still remembered what has actually occurred, someone who knew more about the town and why it was associated with the supernatural.
When Aria arrived at the attic and resumed her search Her mind was already whirring, trying to anticipate what she would do next. She would head to the town archives and speak to the citizens of the town and gather as much information as it is possible about Wolvesbane Hollow and the mystical veil the stranger mentioned.
But even as she plotted her next moves, a small voice in the back of her mind whispered a warning: Be careful what you expose. Some things are meant to stay buried.
Aria pushed the thought aside. Regardless of whatever evil lurked in the shadows of Wolvesbane Hollow, she was bent on getting to the bottom of it. She had no other option. The past was catching up with her, and there was no turning back now.