As the vision faded, the world slowly swirled back into focus, leaving Lilly gasping for air, her knees weak as she gripped the edge of the stone altar for balance. It was as if the oppressive weight of the past still clung to her chest as she struggled for breath, her mind reeling from what she had just seen.
The cemetery around her was silent, still cold bite to the air. The spirits that had swirled around them were gone, no doubt keeping their distance for now, watching from the shadows as if they, too, knew that something had shifted. Above, the sky was a pale silvery gray, the first hints of dawn creeping over the horizon.
Lilly blinked, her eyes focusing as she took in where she was: still at the altar in West Wood Cemetery, the cracked and weathered stone beneath her hands. Silas was standing beside her, his face tight with concern as he watched her with reserve.
"You're back," he whispered low, yet heaved with tension. "Are you all right?"
Lillie nodded, though her heart was racing against her chest. The vision had shaken her, the weight of all she was seeing weighing upon her like a gray fog. She saw how it all went wrong with the ritual, how the entity bound itself onto Silas, and now, after all these years, she finally gained a complete understanding of what they were really up against.
"I'm fine," Lilly said, though her voice shook a little. "But… I saw it, Silas. I saw everything."
Silas's face hardened, drawing a step closer to her, his eyes seeking hers. "What did you see?" he asked in a hushed, urgent voice.
Lilly took a deep breath, her mind racing as she tried to find the right words. "The routine," she said slowly now. "The Grey family's routine… I saw it fail. I saw how the entity broke free, and how it… bound itself to you.
Silas's jaw clenched, and he looked away for a moment, his hands curling into fists at his sides. "I knew it," he muttered, bitterness lacing frustration into his tone. "Even then, I could feel something. But no one else grasped it. They thought it was just a failed binding, but the entity. It latched onto me.
Lilly swallowed hard; the memory of the vision was fresh in her mind. "It wasn't your fault," she whispered low. "The entity was just too powerful. The ritual was not strong enough to hold it when it then failed and found its way to anchor itself into the mortal world through you.
Silas shook his head, his face dark. "But that's just it, Lilly. I failed. I was supposed to be the conduit. I was supposed to stop it, and I didn't."
She went closer to him, her heartache tearing her apart at seeing all the guilt So marked upon his features. "You didn't fail, Silas. The ritual wasn't complete. It was lacking in something-something important.
Silas's face crumpled into a frown, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Missing something? What do you mean?
In her mind, Lilly replayed the vision with clarity. The Grey family had been so close to binding the entity; something just went wrong. The power spiraled out of control, and the entity was free. But there had been something else there within the vision that they hadn't noticed.
"There is yet another artifact," Lilly stuttered a little as she gathered her memory. "In the vision, I saw two on the altar. One of them is the one we have now, but there's yet another. It is in the Grey family that they used during the ritual, but they did not understand how it works.
Realization dawned in Silas's eyes as he turned toward the altar. His gaze scoured the stone for any sign of the second artifact. "Are you certain?" he asked, his voice full of hope and a little disbelief.
Lilly nodded. "I am sure in that respect; the second artifact is related to the entity, a part of the ritual itself; it would be the missing piece. We can finish the binding if we can find it.
Silas's eyes found hers again, this time with a renewed determination in their depths. "Then we find it," he said matter-of-factly.
Lilly's heart raced as she looked around the altar, peering at the cracked stone for any sign of the second artifact. The faint light of dawn was beginning to creep over the cemetery, casting long shadows across gravestones, but it was nowhere to be seen.
"It's not here," Lilly grumbled, her anger growing by the second. "It has to be nearby… it was used in the ritual, but…"
Her voice trailed off, and she suddenly stared at something: a faint, glowing trail of ghostly energy was almost indistinct in the poor light. It was the same ghostly presence she had seen before out in the cemetery. It shimmered in the air almost like a mist, and a chill ran down Lilly's spine. There, she whispered, one shaking finger pointed at the glowing trail. That's it, that's the essence. It's leading us to the artifact.
Silas followed her gaze, his eyes narrowing as he saw the faint glow. "Ghostly essence," he said quietly. "It's leaking from the entity. It must be connected with the second artifact.
Lilly and Silas followed the trail in utter silence; their footsteps were barely audible as they beat through the stillness of the cemetery. The trail led them away from the altar, deeper into the cemetery filled row upon row with weathered gravestones and twisted trees. It was as if the ghostly essence pulsed thin, almost like a heartbeat, guiding them toward something hidden under the earth.
They finally came to a stop in front of a great moss-covered stone slab. The ground beneath it shimmered with ghostly energy, and Lilly felt the faint humming of magic vibrating about them.
"This is it," Lilly was panting, "here is the second artifact buried beneath this slab."
Silas dropped onto his knees beside the stone and wasted no time in brushing off the rotted dirt and moss that had accumulated on it for years. The stone was a heavy one, but he grunted a few times with the effort, and Silas and Lilly pulled it aside to reveal a dark and narrow passageway beneath. The air rising from the passage was chilling, unnaturally cold, carrying with it the vaguely rank stench of decay and something older, much older, than the graveyard.
Lilly's heart raced, pounding in her chest, as she peered down into the dark below. It's down there, she thought, the second artifact-she could feel it. And with it, the final piece of the ritual.
Silas turned to her, eyes taut, yet firm. "Ready?" he asked.
After a moment, Lilly nodded, her hands shaking just a little. "Yeah, let's finish up here." Together, they waded into the passageway, where weighted upon their mission, it seemed, like a mantle upon their shoulders. The ghostly essence pulsed around them, leading deeper and deeper underground. The deeper they went, the more Lilly couldn't rid herself from one growing sense of dread feeling that what they were about to uncover was going to prove far more dangerous than anything they'd ever encountered.