Lilly didn't waste any time. She had the newly found information from her grandmother's journal, and thus, one night, she marched straight to West Wood Cemetery to confront Silas. This was the man she had trusted in this crazy, unsafe world of spirits and secrets, and now she couldn't get rid of the tingly feeling in her stomach, sensing he was keeping things from her.
The air was colder than usual, the darkness heavier as she walked through the gates. The cemetery was quiet, but Lilly knew better than to think she was alone. Silas had always known she was there — tonight wouldn't be different.
She approached his grave, her heart pounding in her chest, and sure enough, there he was — standing beside the headstone, his face unreadable.
"You've been busy," Silas said, his voice even, with an edge to it that suggested he knew why she was there.
Lilly didn't waste any time. She pulled out a journal from her bag and stretched it out for him to see. "Why didn't you tell me you knew my grandmother?"
Lilly didn't wait for Silas to say anything more. She took the journal from her bag and clutched it tightly in the palm of her hand as if it were some kind of anchor in this sea of uncertainty surrounding her.
"Why didn't you tell me you knew my grandmother?" she asked, her voice sharper than she meant it to be. All the emotions building up all day — confusion, anger, fear — were boiling over, and she wanted answers. She wasn't leaving without them.
Silas looked down at the journal in her hand. For the first time, something moved in his expression. His cool seemed to break, just for a second, and in its place was something Lilly couldn't quite describe — maybe guilt.
"It wasn't relevant," he said quietly, but his words carried a weight behind them that twisted Lilly's stomach.
"Not relevant?" she echoed incredulously. "Silas, she knew about you. She wrote about you in here." Lilly's voice rose as she held the journal up. "She saw you at West Wood, just like I did. And she knew about the Grey family. She knew they were into something. Whatever it was, she was afraid of them. And you didn't think that was relevant?"
Silas's shoulders sagged now as if the weight of the past had finally reached him. He took another step forward, his eyes diverting and riveting onto the brown leather journal clutched in Lilly's hand. "I didn't want to drag you into this any more than you already are."
Lilly's heart was racing in her chest. "I'm involved, Silas. I've been involved since the moment I took that job here. You knew about my abilities. You knew I could see the dead, and now I find out that my grandmother was tangled up in this mess too? You should have told me."
Silas didn't say another word. He looked down and just stood there. Lilly could feel the silence in the air, the unspoken words hanging between them like a thick fog. She, too, said nothing, her fingers wrapped tightly around the journal in an attempt to even out her breathing.
"I knew your grandmother," Silas said finally, his voice softer now. "But she wasn't part of this, Lilly. She got too close, yes, but she didn't understand what she was dealing with. I didn't want the same thing to happen to you."
Anger fired anew in Lilly's veins. "You don't get to decide that for me. I deserve to know the truth."
Silas met her gaze, his eyes clouded with something she'd never seen in them before. "The truth is dangerous," he said softly. "Your grandmother realized that too late."
Lilly's heart clenched. She thought of the entries in the journal, the fear progressively building in her grandmother's handwriting as she described the strange visions and encounters at the cemetery. The Grey family, the rituals, the dark presence that seemed to linger over West Wood — it was all connected. And now, it was becoming clear that Silas had been in the middle of it.
"What happened, Silas?" Lilly asked, composed now. "I need to know."
Silas hesitated, his jaw tightening. For a moment, she thought he might refuse to tell her, might keep hiding the truth. But then he spoke, and his voice came out low and filled with a sorrow that made Lilly's chest tighten.
"The Greys were powerful," he started, staring away as if watching the past unfold before his eyes. "They ran most of the town then. Not with just wealth or influence. Something darker. They had connections. They made deals with forces most people wouldn't understand. It gave them power over life and death."
Lilly swallowed hard as her pulse quickened. "And you were part of that?"
Silas shook his head. "Not willingly. I was trying to build a life for myself, something independent of their influence. But I got too close to their secrets. I found out about the rituals and the sacrifices they were making. They were trying to cheat death, Lilly — to extend their lives, their power, by making deals with things that should not be toyed with."
Lilly's blood ran cold. "What kind of deals?"
Silas hesitated, and something dark flashed in his eyes. "They used the cemetery. West Wood was their ground, where they performed the rituals. They needed it, needed the spirits tied to it. And when I found out, they couldn't let me walk away."
Lilly's mind was racing. She knew the cemetery held more than just the bodies of the dead, but rituals and sacrifices were more than she could have ever imagined. And if Silas was telling the truth, the Grey family had twisted West Wood to their means.
"They killed you," Lilly whispered, the realization hitting her like a blow to the solar plexus. "Because you knew too much."
Silas's jaw worked, and for a while, he said nothing. Then carefully, with slow, measured nods, he confirmed her worst fear. "Yes." Her heart ached for him. She had known instinctively from the start that there was a tragic element to Silas, something that had joined him intimately with this world long since he had died. Now, fully understanding the burden of it was too much to bear.
"They didn't just kill me," Silas went on, his voice quieter. "They bound me to this place. As punishment. As a warning to others who might get too close. I'm trapped here, Lilly. That's why I cannot move on."
Lilly's breath caught. She thought Silas's unfinished business was just about him wanting to expose the truth, but it was so much more than that. He wasn't just a spirit stuck between worlds — he was imprisoned here, tied to the very earth where the Greys had committed such dark deeds.
"I need your help," Silas said, his gaze locking onto hers. "I cannot do this by myself. If we do not stop this, if we do not find the truth, the same thing that happened to me will continue to happen to others. And it has already begun. The spirits in the cemetery are restless because the old magic is still here. The Greys may be gone, but the rituals they performed still echo through this place."
His words settled over her like a heavy blanket.
She had sensed the growing unrest among the spirits, the way they seemed more agitated, more aggressive. The encounter with the hostile ghost from the night before had confirmed that something had changed, something darker had awoken.
"I'll help you," Lilly said finally, attempting to maintain a steady tone as the threat inched up her spine. "But from now on, Silas, you need to be upfront with me. No more secrets."
Silas nodded, and his face softened ever so slightly. "No more secrets," he promised.
Lilly held his gaze a little longer, the weight of what she had just agreed to settle in. This was no longer about helping a lost spirit move on. This was about confronting something ancient, something dangerous. And if they weren't careful, it would destroy them both.